New Historical Perspectives on the Methodist and Waldensian Presence in the Italian Urban Space.

The event represents the first opportunity to present to an international audience the two
monumental works that will be published in early 2024 by Claudiana on the history of Italian
Waldensians (Storia dei Valdesi, 4 voll., eds. Paolo Naso, Susanna Peyronel Rambaldi, Gian
Paolo Romagnani, Francesca Tasca) and Italian Methodists (Metodisti in Italia, eds. Daniele
Garrone, Paolo Naso, Silvana Nitti). While the first work, organized in four volumes, with
the latter covering the late modern and contemporary periods, aims to replace the previous
work by Valdo Vinay published more than 50 years ago, the second represents the first
comprehensive history of Italian Methodism ever published.
Paolo Naso — one of the editors of both volumes — will present and discuss the results of
such work, in particular the new findings and perspectives on the urban presence of the two
Protestant confessions in Italy, from the Statuto Albertino of 1848 to the season of the
Concordat of 1984. How did Waldensians and Methodists organize their urban presence in
Turin after the granting of the Statuto Albertino of 1848 and in Florence after the unification
of 1861? What problems did they face? How did they experience and perceive urban spaces
marked by the cultural monopoly of the Catholic Church, especially in the South? How did
their newly founded religious buildings in the cities conform to and reframe religious
traditions? How were religious spaces organized outside of Italy among the diasporic
communities? How did Fascist legislations impact the Protestant presence in Italian cities?

Registration is required and can be done via email at: rdiuhs@gmail.com. The Zoom invitation will be sent out the day before the seminar to the email address used for the registration. For more information, please visit: https://as.nyu.edu/departments/italian/Initiatives.html For inquiries please email: Massimo Di Gioacchino (Chair, massimo.digioacchino@nyu.edu) or Angelica Federici (Secretary, angelica.federici@uniroma3.it).