It was Federico Chabod who recognized in Jean Bodin's theory of climate the merging, in the middle of the sixteenth century, of the «scattered seeds» of an essentially naturalistic idea of nation, still far from the modern conception of the nation as «a spiritual fact». Bodin (1529-1596) was one of the greatest exponents of French legal humanism. Reworking and updateing in his major works (Methodus, 1566; République, 1576-1586; Universae naturae theatrum, 1596) a long dating back theme, Bodin presented the characters of nations as dependent on climatic situations: the cold north with the torpid ingenuity of the inhabitants, the hot south with subtle ingenuity, and the middle zone of temperate nations. That theory, which soon became a stereotype until its reworking in Montesquieu's Esprit des lois, actually played a more decisive role in the genesis of the modern concept of nation, made visible for the first time, albeit in a symbolic and imaginary way.
University of Trento, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0002-3831-0595
Chapter Title
Bodin e la teoria climatica in epoca moderna
Authors
Diego Quaglioni
Language
Italian
DOI
10.36253/978-88-5518-160-0.03
Peer Reviewed
Publication Year
2020
Copyright Information
© 2020 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Book Title
Nazioni come individui
Book Subtitle
Il carattere nazionale fra passato e presente
Editors
Michela Nacci
Peer Reviewed
Number of Pages
158
Publication Year
2020
Copyright Information
© 2020 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Publisher Name
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/978-88-5518-160-0
ISBN Print
978-88-5518-159-4
eISBN (pdf)
978-88-5518-160-0
eISBN (epub)
978-88-5518-161-7
Series Title
Studi e saggi
Series ISSN
2704-6478
Series E-ISSN
2704-5919