LUIGI MARIA GALANTI. A FORGOTTEN GEOGRAPHER OF THE EARLY NEAPOLITAN 1800S.

Abstract

The paper focuses on Luigi Maria Galanti, a Neapolitan geographer of the first Nineteenth Century, who is almost unknown, because he was considered a follower of reformist period. He is the representative of novel age of the Naples geography, whose specificity should be investigated. Therefore we analyze the complex cultural climate of the early 1800s in Naples. Then the formation and the background of L. Galanti are illustrated, and the most important essays – Geografia elementare and Geografia fisica e politica – are studied in details. Galanti emerges as a key figure of the Neapolitan geography and, besides performing a formative role at the University and Polytechnic School, has the merit of the spreading of thoughts over geographical themes in the Neapolitan environment.