Vincenzo Cuoco (October 1, 1770 – December
14, 1823) was an Italian writer.
He is mainly remembered for his Saggio Storico
sulla Rivoluzione Napoletana del 1799 ("Historical
Essay on the Neapolitan Revolution of 1799").
He is a considered one of the precursors of
Italian liberalism and the realist school.
Cuoco adapted the critique of political rationalism
of Edmund Burke and Joseph de Maistre for
liberal ends, and has been described as a
better historian than either of them.
He influenced many subsequent Italian intellectuals,
from Ugo Foscolo and Alessandro Manzoni to
Bertrando and Silvio Spaventa to Benedetto
Croce and Antonio Gramsci.
== Biography ==
=== 
Early life ===
Vincenzo Cuoco was born into a middle class
family in the town of Civitacampomarano, near
Campobasso in the Molise region of central
Italy.
His father was Michelangelo Cuoco, a lawyer
and economist, while his mother was Colomba
de Marinis.
He studied in his native town under Francesco
Maria Pepe, then moved to Naples in 1787 to
study jurisprudence and become a lawyer, but
instead found himself attracted to economics,
philosophy, history, and politics.
In Naples he had the opportunity to meet some
of the prominent intellectuals of Southern
Italy, including Giuseppe Maria Galanti, who
in a letter to Vincenzo's father described
the young man as capace, di molta abilità
e di molto talento ("able, of great skill
and great talent"), although trascurato ("careless")
and indolente ("lazy"); Galanti was probably
not entirely satisfied with Vincenzo's collaboration
on his Descrizione Geografica e Politica delle
Sicilie.
During his studies, Cuoco was deeply influenced
by Enlightenment writers from Southern Italy
(Genovesi, Galiani, and of course Galanti)
and France (Montesquieu, Rousseau), as well
as by earlier writers, especially Giambattista
Vico and Niccolò Machiavelli.
=== Revolution and exile ===
When the Neapolitan revolution broke out in
January 1799, Vincenzo Cuoco strongly supported
the new Republican government installed in
place of the monarchy of Ferdinand I of the
Two Sicilies; he became secretary to Ignazio
Gonfalonieri and was tasked with the organisation
of the Volturno Department.
Following the reinstatement of the monarchy
in June 1799, Cuoco was imprisoned for a few
months, his belongings confiscated, and was
then forced into exile.
He took refuge first in Paris, then in Milan,
where he published his main work ("Saggio
Storico sulla Rivoluzione Napoletana del 1799").
He accepted positions in the Repubblica Cisalpina
and the Repubblica Italiana, most notably
the job of executive editor of the "Giornale
Italiano" magazine during the period 1804-1806.
His articles in the Giornale spurred Italians
towards change in ethics, society, politics,
and the economy, in order to make themselves
worthy of national independence.
During this period, he also wrote his epistolary
novel "Platone in Italia", published in 1806).
=== Back to Naples ===
In 1806 Vincenzo Cuoco returned to Naples,
as Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies had been
deposed in favour of Giuseppe Bonaparte (Napoleon's
elder brother).
He was given significant responsibilities
in the public administration, first as Consigliere
di Cassazione (councilor to the Supreme Court),
then as Direttore del Tesoro (director of
the Treasury); he distinguished himself as
one of the most important councilors of the
government of Joachim Murat.
He wrote for the magazine Monitore delle Due
Sicilie ("Monitor of the Two Sicilies"), and
founded the Giornale Costituzionale delle
Due Sicilie ("Constitutional Journal of the
Two Sicilies").
In 1809, Cuoco also drafted a Progetto per
l'Ordinamento della Pubblica Istruzione nel
Regno di Napoli" ("Project for the Ordainment
of Public Education in the Kingdom of Naples"),
in which he expounded his view of public education
as an indispensable tool towards the formation
of a common national awareness in the people.
In 1808 he was the president of the Accademia
Pontaniana.
In 1810 he was named Chief of the Provincial
Council of Molise and, in 1812, wrote the
Viaggio in Molise ("Journey Through Molise")
about his native region.
In 1815, after Ferdinand I was restored to
the throne following the Battle of Tolentino,
Cuoco retired from politics.
=== Illness and death ===
After his retirement, Cuoco started to show
worrying signs of mental instability.
He reportedly destroyed some of his writings,
had frequent breakdowns, and became increasingly
apathetic and withdrawn from social life.
There are no clues as to the exact cause of
these symptoms; but whatever the disease was,
he died of it in Naples in 1823.
== Works ==
Lettere a Vincenzo Russo ("Letters to Vincenzo
Russo") - Written during the 1799 Neapolitan
Republic, the letters comment on the Constitution
that was being written for the nascent Republic
and champion devolution.
Saggio Storico sulla Rivoluzione Napoletana
del 1799 ("Historical Essay on the Neapolitan
Revolution of 1799") - Published in 1801 in
Milan, where Cuoco was exiled, is a passionate
critique of the short-lived republican Revolution,
which Cuoco identified as doomed to failure
(because it was carried out by an elite of
revolutionaries detached from the common people),
yet praiseworthy (because it tried to free
the people and was paid for with the heroic
sacrifice of the revolutionaries' lives once
the monarchy was restored).
Cuoco wrote a second edition which was published
in 1806 and remains the standard account to
this day.
Platone in Italia ("Plato in Italy") - Published
in 1806 in Milan, this is an epistolary novel
in which Cuoco imagines an ancient civilisation
that flourished in Southern Italy before the
Greek colonisation and yearns for a spiritual
rebirth of Italy stemming from its own traditions,
and not from foreign influences.
This theme would be reprised continually throughout
the Risorgimento, most notably by Vincenzo
Gioberti
