Venezia e il mitodell’asilo di libertà

Around 1765 Voltaire described Venice as «asile de la liberté» and used the city’s history to discuss possible ways of understanding freedom.From the second half of the 17th century the same expression «asylum ofliberty» was used to define the idea of freedom matured inpredominantly republican contexts, particularly in the ancient Rome. The aim of the paper is to reflect on the evolution of the meaning of the expression «asylum of freedom» and on the transformation of theconcept of asylum from a place of ecclesiastical immunity to a refuge for the persecuted during the 17th century. The transformations of themeaning of the word asylum will then follow, with references to Venetianhistory and paying particular attention to the libertine environments ofthe mid-seventeenth century.