During the Kingdom of Italy (1805-1814), the Napoleonic government began some administrative reforms for the most important cities, which were promoted to the rank of ‘chief town’. This policy at the beginning of the nineteenth century redefined the size of the cities: it extended their territorial limits and thus their population, reorganizing the urban space through large-scale projects. These reforms initiated a change in the «ancien régime» concept of the city. The article compares the case study of Venice, the ex capital city of the Republic, to Milan, the capital city of the new state. Utilizing a comparative method with legal and statistical archive sources, it emerges that the French government gave Venice the role of ‘great city’ of the kingdom, like Milan. On this basis, it is possible to formulate the historical hypothesis of Venice as a ‘semicapital’ city.
La "grandezza‟ di Venezia e Milano in età napoleonica. Un'idea amministrativa di città in due "semicapitali‟ del primo Ottocento
DORIA, ELENA
2013-01-01
Abstract
During the Kingdom of Italy (1805-1814), the Napoleonic government began some administrative reforms for the most important cities, which were promoted to the rank of ‘chief town’. This policy at the beginning of the nineteenth century redefined the size of the cities: it extended their territorial limits and thus their population, reorganizing the urban space through large-scale projects. These reforms initiated a change in the «ancien régime» concept of the city. The article compares the case study of Venice, the ex capital city of the Republic, to Milan, the capital city of the new state. Utilizing a comparative method with legal and statistical archive sources, it emerges that the French government gave Venice the role of ‘great city’ of the kingdom, like Milan. On this basis, it is possible to formulate the historical hypothesis of Venice as a ‘semicapital’ city.
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