Biografie in cammino. Vite del Risorgimento e mitografie nazionali

The debate about the Risorgimento has always been played out in the historiographical battlefield, as well as in the public arena. The article weaves together these two contexts by focussing on the genre of biography in all its manifestations. The first section looks at the exemplary case of Anita Garibaldi, from the various stages of her life to the images and representations of this heroine after her death. The second part analyses the great biographical dictionaries of the 20th century which allow us to place the Risorgimento tradition within the context of Liberal, then Fascist and finally Republican Italy.