A conflict of identities : personal identification in revolutionary and Napoleonic Italy (1796-1814)

Abstract

This is a study of changes in the conceptions, procedures and practices related to personal identification in the Napoleonic satellite states of northern Italy (the Cisalpine republics, the Italian republic, and the kingdom of Italy) from 1796 to 1814. French influence in this area introduced new identification tools, ranging from security cards to the civil registration of all births, marriages and deaths. The first part of the thesis examines discussions within the Cisalpine and Italian parliaments and governments to explore the actual motivations underlying the construction of this system. The need for certifiable identities became urgent once public power started to consider society as being composed of single individuals with individual rights. However, when the point of view shifts from national governments to local authorities in the second part, it becomes clear that these innovations could only be implemented to a limited extent. The scarce amount of law enforcement forces meant that the system of universal identity documents, certified by the state, was only partially respected. The gaps in national legislation and the implementation thereof left a large margin of discretion to local authorities and police forces. They, in turn, used the new identification tools as a way to address older issues such as idleness and begging. Finally, in its third section, this thesis focuses on how local populations related to the new identification system. Their general attitude was a mixture of indifference and adaptation. Historians examining these identification practices “from above” have argued that they constituted a clean break with the past. Seen from below, however, the changes in practices of personal identification look different. What emerges from the gap between the conceptions of the Italian élites and the difficulties encountered by local authorities in implementing these innovations is a process of “negotiated modernisation”, in which the state had to adapt to the population as much as the population had to adapt to the state. Defence date: 04 June 2021