Il destino dei laghi. Il dibattito sul Fucino e sul Trasimeno (1780-1870 ca.)

Between 1780 and 1870 the Fucino lake and the Trasimeno lake had been the involved in a heated debate concerning their future; at the end of that period they had two different destinies: the first lake has been dried up; the second lake has been preserved. Even though the two lakes were not very far, they were divided by an important geographical boundary. The Fucino lake was under the Regno Borbonico; the Trasimeno lake was under the Pa-pal State. Was that administrative border crucial in a historical perspective? The analysis of the debate concerning Fucino and Trasimeno allows to verify and better understand the close relationship between economy, policy, geology and technological improvements. The historical approach focuses the changes determined by political and institutional transformations from the late period of the Old Italian States, by the Age of Revolution, until the birth of Italian Kingdom. And it focuses also the boundaries as mechanisms for creating new possibilities, opening up new channels for information ex-change, facilitating coexistence of different groups, both humans and other species. The Authors examine the object considering many different historical sources: pamphlets, essays, political press and scientific magazines. Thanks to this approach they can describe some topics especially connected to the eco-nomic interests of different social classes, the public health, the stature of the political approach and the output of the exchange between scientists and pol-icy makers. At the end the Authors underline the relevance of the different conceptions – in space, time and social aspects - of ‘public interest’.