On Cultural Transmission. A Case Study: Condillac and Italy

Étienne Bonnot de Condillac (1715-80) lived in Parma for nine years (1758-67) at the court of Philip and Louise Elizabeth (1758-67), as tutor to their son Ferdinand. His long stay in Italy provides an interesting model for investigating the specific assumptions of the concept of "cultural migrations" or intellectual transmission between different philosophical cultures. In fact, the philosophical innovations introduced by the French philosopher, which found favour in the rest of Europe, were sometimes rejected or neglected in the Duchy of Parma and in Italy as a whole. The difficulties for the historian of ideas in formulating hypotheses about the relevance and modalities of cultural transmission are particularly evident in a case such as that of Condillac, whose actual presence in Parma and Italy seems to raise some doubts as to whether or not the migration of authors also entailed the migration of their ideas. The aim of this essay is to reconsider the basic assumptions of the method that usually guides research in the specific field of cultural exchange.