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Aula Imbucci

The two recent monographic books of the historical review “Cheiron” have focused attention on the theme of the court, as a material and immaterial place of power, where royal or noble dynasties intertwine their relationships, build and disseminate their images, strengthen and manage their own authorities. The volume “Politica charmante. Società di corte e figure femminili nelle età di transizione”, edited by Elena Riva, in the light of gender history, but going beyond this perspective, is dedicated to deepening the “authentically” political role played by women who carry out government functions. The cases presented highlight the importance and complexity of the networks led by female figures, with a clever use of kinship, friendships, public and private relationships. Still the court, but analyzed in the Bourbon eighteenth century, is the core of the research conducted in the volume “The Europe of decentralized courts. Palaces and Royal Sites: the Construction of the Political Image of the Bourbons of Italy and Spain “, edited by Giuseppe Cirillo. In eighteenth-century Europe, in the Bourbon experience of governing, there is a model of “decentralized court”, based on a network of palaces and real sites, functional to the consolidation of sovereignty through military and strategic control of the territory, extension of the physical and symbolic presence of the king, definition of ceremonials oriented to the manifestation of royalty.