"Augusta dominatrice del Nord" : Caterina II nell’immaginario letterario italiano del Settecento

This contribution focuses on the representations of Catherine II in a selection of Italian literary texts of the second half of the eighteenth century. While writers such as Giambattista Casti and Vittorio Alfieri despised the Russian tsarina because of the absolutist and despotic regime she embodied, many other authors, following the philosophes’ principles, ap­ preciated her great and innovative projects (for example the Nakaz, i.e. the new law code) and her role as supporter of arts and sciences. In particular, this work examines the poems celebrating Catherine’s figure. In fact, these poems were destined to contribute to the ideological and cultural frame shared by the supporters of the enlightened absolutism (Giuseppe Parini, Giuseppe Colpani, Pietro and Alessandro Verri).