Chapter “Rievocare certe nobili opere dei nostri maggiori”: the Istituto per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente (IsMEO) and the “Myth” of Italian Travellers to the East

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the development of a shared sense of identity and community that occurred in Italy from its unification until the end of the colonial empire, and its traces in the republican period. This nation-building process will be examined by analysing Italy’s relationship with the early modern age of the Peninsula and its pre-unification travellers to the East. We will see how the production and dissemination of an Italian national consciousness and sentiment was based largely on the construction of a “mythical past” through exhibitions, collections, printed works, magazines and institutes dedicated to magnifying the “exploits” of travellers and explorers in the East, from Marco Polo to Giuseppe Tucci.