Abstract

What, ultimately, are the common denominators of this long and geographically extended process? Let us try to summarize them. European cultural transmission happened from court to court and was essentially tied to a radical refashioning of the absolutist political language. Court culture is the root of modernity, which Europe imported from Italy. Especially in the Baroque age, Europe appropriated classicism – the fundamental matter of this phenomenon – through the mediation of Italian courts. In this context, Italian courts produced a systemic impact on the formative process of European identity.

Keywords: cultural transmission, classicism, modernity, European identity