The square as a political space

With the seminar The square as a political space: manuscripts, printings and songs held on 9^th June, Prof. Massimo Rospocher shifted the focus of reflection within the cycle of meetings Verba manent to the spaces and concrete conditions in which communication takes place. Dwelling on the spaces, the professor allowed us to reconsider the relationship between the rumours circulating and influencing each other in the square and the news in the other places where the communicative flow took place.

Rospocher, who is a professor of social and cultural history of the Early Modern Age, the history of public opinion, the history of communication, urban history and digital humanities at the Historical Italo-Germanic Institute of Trento, focused his presentation on the material contexts, means and places which facilitate the short-circuit between distinct cultural levels: from the key role of the press, to its coexistence with the circulation of manuscripts and with oral communication, from the levels of literacy to those of enjoyment of culture.

Reasoning on the concepts of the public sphere, public opinion and propaganda has also made it possible to escape from the easy dichotomy between upper and lower, between palace and square and, above all, between public opinion and propaganda.

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