The fate of the Papal States during the unification of Italy is of particular scientific interest. Despite the economic backwardness of the state, which was aggravated during the years of the Restoration, the papacy sought to maintain its influence in Italian and European politics. The traditions of the theocratic state management absorbed much from the practice of governing the Catholic Church, which led to the formation of a special political culture. Due to this, the political practice of the Papal States in the first half of the 19th century combined extremely retrograde elements and ideological innovation in an original way, which made it possible to use the potential of the Catholic doctrine and maintain a leading political role in the Appenines. The early 1840s saw the crystallization of the doctrine of neo-Guelphism, which believed that the papacy was destined for a special mission in the political revival and unification of Italy. This doctrine evoked a wide response throughout the entire Apennines and beyond. The purpose of this article is to analyse the political and administrative practices of the papacy, the uniqueness of its political culture and social climate. The Papal States are characterized by a complex combination of secular and ecclesiastical methods of influencing society. Ideas about the political role of the papal state and its immediate prospects were often formed not so much around its objective potential as by centuries-old belief in the fundamental differences between the nature of this state and the nature of its Italian neighbours. The innovative course taken by the newly elected Pope Pius IX in 1846–1847 seriously undermined this conviction, but did not alienate the model of the political evolution of the Papal States from the fate of some other Italian states. Identification of the features of the political culture of the Papal States is possible only by studying a range of specific sources. The article deals with the basic official, religious and secular, documents of the Curia, and the evidence left by the publicist and fictional literature of the era. The results of the study will allow a better understanding of the condition of the papal state on the eve of the 1848 revolution, as well as the reasons for the subsequent conservative turn.

The study of Vincenzo Gioberti’s ideological and political heritage, his views on the nature of Italian unity allows us to take a new look at his growing popularity among today’s Italian politicians of the federalist wing. Contemporary historiography and socio-political debates present Gioberti as one of the central characters of the Risorgimento. Among the reasons for this are the crisis of traditional federalism and relative decline in popularity of the ideological reference points of the recent past. One of Gioberti’s most important actualized theses is the establishment of a self-sufficient philosophical thought in Italy; another newly sounding idea is the preeminent role of the Catholic Church in reconciling the ambitions of regional elites. The article shows that the understanding of these and some other theses of Gioberti nowadays differs quite significantly from the meaning that the thinker put into them, and it is dictated by the political conjuncture. This phenomenon is also not new. The application of ideas expressed in the mid-nineteenth century specific situation to other temporal and political contexts makes it difficult to understand the philosopher’s works and leads to distortions in their interpretation. The figure of Gioberti as a link between Italian social thought and French Romanticism has been insufficiently studied. Comparing his project of the federalist structure of the future Italy with other similar projects of the Risorgimento allows us to identify the most important individual feature. In the 1840s the main political problem of Italy was seen as the contradiction between the need to unite the forces of the nation and the presence of several sovereigns, regional elites and local patriotism. Awareness of a number of obstacles to the political unification of the country led thinkers to propose various ways to go beyond this contradiction on the basis of political compromises and overcoming immediate difficulties. Gioberti’s federalism, on the other hand, was founded on the combination of the federalist ideal with an advanced philosophical doctrine. This made his theory unsuitable for political application, but it is an attractive aspect when studying the philosopher’s legacy at the present stage.