L’educazione del popolo nella Public History of Education: istruire con i Catechismi repubblicani durante la Repubblica napoletana del 1799

During the very brief experience of the Neapolitan Republic of 1799, the pro-republican Neapolitan intellectuals entrusted the nation-state with the role of state educator in order to be able to activate innovative public education projects. Various propaganda and training tools for republican ideas were used, among these the republican catechism was a tool capable of shaping consciences by directing them towards the republican faith. The texts of the four lay catechisms, circulated during the Neapolitan republic of 1799, were first analyzed (also with the aid of software) and then interpreted: after all, to be able to understand a text well it is essential to enter the circle hermeneutic, that is, in the intricate fabric of knowledge, a stratified system of multiple interpretations. The pages of the republican catechisms of the Jacobean three-year period increase the Public History of Education, helping to better outline the different perspectives of civil pedagogy.