Ferdinand I, Duke of Parma, wan king an almost insignificant duchy of northern and central Italy, is nevertheless destined to be famous for what could have been, rather than what it was.
The Duchy of Parma was governed in the middle of the eighteenth century by the Bourbon dynasty, which, successor to the Farnese family and the Habsburgs, had introduced some significant innovations in trying to emancipate themselves from the influence church, with the abolition of the Court of 'Inquisition, the abolition of privileges granted to the clergy, and the strengthening of public education. By actually quite positive, considering for example that Parma was the city after Paris, with the highest number of subscribers to ' Encyclopédie . Ferdinando, nato nel 1751, era destinato a raccogliere l'eredità del padre Filippo I, che aveva retto il Ducato con equilibrio e saggezza (insieme alla moglie Elisabetta di Borbone).
Per prepararlo al compito che lo attendeva, i genitori di Ferdinando decisero di affidare la sua istruzione agli uomini migliori dell'epoca. La scelta cadde in primo luogo su Auguste de Keralio, che fu nominato "governatore" dell'Infante di Parma: avrebbe dovuto vivere costantemente al suo fianco, per essere il suo punto di riferimento per quanto riguarda le faccende morali e di condotta. Keralio svolse il suo compito tentando di inculcare nel giovane i principi della filosofia dei Lumi, indirizzandolo quindi a una religiosità sincera ma non bigotta, non incline alle superstizioni e alle piccole pratiche di devozione poco adatte a un principe.
Come precettore invece la scelta cadde nientemeno che su Étienne Bonnot de Condillac, ispiratore dell' Enciclopedia di Diderot e d'Alembert, autore del Trattato sulle sensazioni , esponente e massimo divulgatore in Francia del sensismo lockiano, amico personale di Rousseau, e a sua volta inventore di una teoria pedagogica, dedotta dalla sua filosofia, che avrebbe potuto finalmente mettere in pratica (la cooperazione deve sostituirsi all'autorità, occorre rispettare i ritmi dell'allievo e procedere per tappe, procedendo dal particolare in general, and not vice versa).
Besides Kerala and Condillac, is also large influence on the boy Dutillot minister, in whose hands the sun is in practice given the Duchy once orphaned Ferdinand, who will act and opposing claims of clergy in the name of secular principles much like the philosophes . He was responsible for many worthy cultural initiatives, such as the foundation of the Academy of Fine Arts, the Museum of Antiquities, the Royal Printing, and the newspaper Gazzetta di Parma . Not to mention the presence in court, many famous people, such as mathematical and physical Jacquier and Le Seur, the historian Millot (called its to give lessons to the prince), and many others, until the printer Bodoni.
Ferdinand - as told by the beautiful book by Elizabeth Badinter, The Infant de Parme - thus becomes the ideal guinea pig for an interesting educational experiment: the ideology of the Enlightenment empiricist education is everything, and takes precedence over the innate nature of man. The culture and rationality can overcome ignorance and superstition, when the latter is given the right to cast seeds on the fertile soil of the human mind, ready to accept both the good and bad teaching. Ferdinand become, thanks to her teachers, the enlightened ruler that philosophes expect?
Certainly the young Ferdinand was not spared nothing, even to the sound of harsh corporal punishment, because it treats, from an early age, everything that is considered useful to the future sovereign who has completed the first ten years he has already read the scene of Moliere, Corneille and Racine, Voltaire, texts like The Origin of the laws of Goguet, the Treaty on the tropes of Marsais or the Treaty on the sphere of Maupertuis, as well as be introduced to Newtonian physics. In addition, Latin grammar and literature, logic, and history. Follow geometry, hydrostatics, hydraulics, astronomy, geography, architecture, military and modern mathematics. Condillac was satisfied with the intelligence of the pupil.
The tale of an enlightened prince, although early, spread throughout Europe, artfully propagated by the same philosophes, reaching its peak in the year that Ferdinand decides to be inoculated for smallpox immunization (not was still the real vaccine, used for the first time in 1796, but the substances taken from real sick, dangerous practice and opposed by the Church but effective). All the most learned men of Europe look to him as a hope for the triumph of reason sull'oscurantismo religious and absolutist.
But the poor Ferdinand disappoint everyone. Signs that something was wrong in the right direction even before there were: the frequent punishment of which he complains, but they were a perfectly normal practice for the time, are due largely to his own religious transport, to the fact that lets go, more often, in devotional practices that her tutors believe exaggerated and inappropriate to a prince. It also has a fragile character, and the tendency to socialize with people inside the court, not suited to his rank, too often indulging all'infantilismo. Features that all efforts will never lose.
soon became autonomous, and especially since his marriage with Maria Amalia of Habsburg-Lorraine, Ferdinand began to make the policy of ostracism Dutillot, approaches the party's pro-Italian and pro-church of the city that already had a difficult relationship with the French, and draws many people to court earlier removed. Despite all the pressure from abroad to get it back to reason Ferdinand seems subject to the whims of his wife (which, at least initially, keep it under control thanks to the fact that marriage can not be consumed immediately, because of a malfunction due to poor hygiene, which perhaps not one of the lessons provided). Dutillot, for which (unlike the former teacher with whom Keralio will always have a match) Ferdinand has a real hatred, will eventually be removed, the ecclesiastical privileges will be restored, and will even restored the Inquisition. Ferdinand won the nickname "Prince of bigots," which will continue until they lose the throne, many years later, because of Napoleon.
How "experiment" that performed on the skin of this guy certainly has no scientific value. The philosophers we were wrong, and tried in various ways to justify, but it is impossible to determine whether Ferdinand has become a bigot because this was from the beginning to its nature (and then the empiricist thesis should be reviewed) oppure se vi sono stati gravi errori proprio nel metodo pedagogico (cosa altrettanto probabile).
Può comunque servire come memento per chi ha un'eccessiva fiducia nell'educazione, qualunque siano i principi pedagogici ai quali aderisce. Per chi pensa a forgiare non un individuo, ma addirittura un'intera nazione, a suon di proposte di curricolo e di insegnamenti ritenuti di volta in volta, necessari e formativi. Sarebbe una vicenda utile, da studiare e apprendere, per ogni riformatore della scuola, come per ogni difensore accanito degli insegnamenti tradizionali. Perché la verità è semplicemente che alcune cose sfuggono al nostro controllo di ingegneri sociali; per quanto accuratamente le pianifichiamo, they will rebel against our will. Only with the crooked timber of humanity can never be made null and void.
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