Mythical Ancestry, Genealogy, and Nationalism in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Europe

The paper illustrates the survival, reconfigurations and the reuse known by genealogical discourses in Europe in the late eighteenth and the nineteenth century. Historiography has long believed that genealogical practices ended with the fall of the ancient regime. Vice versa, deepening suggestions elaborated by international scholars and at the same time analyzing a variety of texts published in France, Scotland, Italy and other countries in the period considered, it is possible to reconsider the question. The construction of modern national identities as "imagined communities" drew heavily on the heritage represented by languages and genealogical practices perfected in the ancient regime, which has been adapted in the context of disciplines such as linguistics and philology to attribute alleged historical and cultural "origins" to European national identities.