Religion, education and society between the old and new Society of Jesus (1773-1832)

Niccolò Guasti is associate professor in Early Modern History at the Department of Education and Humanities, University of Modena e Reggio Emilia. His main research interests include Eighteenth century enlightened reforms, the Neapolitan Enlightenment and the Italian exile of the Iberian Jesuits. He was visiting researcher at the European University Institute in Florence and at the Universities of Alicante and Stettin. Member since 2021 of the Scientific Board of the Centre for Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Spanish Studies in Bologna, he is the author of several journal essays and some monographs including L’esilio italiano dei gesuiti spagnoli. Identità, controllo sociale e pratiche culturali (1767-1798), Rome, Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 2006; Juan Andrés e la cultura del Settecento, Sesto S. Giovanni, Mimesis, 2017; Collegi e masserie. I gesuiti nel Regno di Napoli (secoli XVI-XVIII), Sesto S. Giovanni, Jouvence, 2022.

Michela Catto is associate professor of Early Modern History at the Department of Historical Studies, University of Turin. Her research interests are focused on the impact of the discovery of the new worlds on European culture, and particularly on the Society of Jesus in China, its evangelization methodologies, and the role of China’s narratives in European culture. She was a Marie Curie Fellow at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. She is the author of numerous essays and various monographs including Un panopticon catechistico. L’arciconfraternita della dottrina cristiana a Roma in età moderna, Rome, Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 2003; La Compagnia divisa. Il dissenso nell’ordine gesuitico tra ’500 e ’600, Brescia, Morcelliana, 2009; Cristiani senza pace. La chiesa, gli eretici e la guerra nella Roma del Cinquecento, Rome, Donzelli, 2012; and (with Mauro Brunello), Ultimissime dalla Cina. Michele Ruggieri missionario e divulgatore, Bari, Calampospecchia edizioni, 2024.

Maria Teresa Guerrini is a professor of modern history at the University of Bologna and a member of numerous scientific societies and research centres (including the Centro Interuniversitario per la Storia delle Università Italiane and the Italian Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies; she is also the scientific referee of the MEUS (European Museum of Students). Her research interests include the exile of the expelled Iberian Jesuits. She is the editor of a series of volumes and has dedicated numerous contributions to the various research topics, including Gesuiti espulsi, gesuiti soppressi: una difficile integrazione, in “Società e Storia”, 154, 2016, pp. 737-765; Alla corte di Benedetto XIV: circoli culturali ed élites spagnole nella Bologna del XVIII secolo, in Cultura di corte nel secolo XVIII spagnolo e italiano, a cura di Annamaria Rao e Niccolò Guasti, Napoli, Federico II University Press, 2023, pp. 191-206; as well as the forthcoming volume Le metamorfosi di Astrea. Professioni giuridiche nella Bologna di età moderna, Milan, FrancoAngeli, 2025.