Tra sovranità e imperialità. Genova nell’età delle congiure popolari barocche (1623–1637).

The struggle between libertas and imperialità is perhaps the most prominent subject in early modern Genoese history. While the Genoese Republic was still formally subordinate to the Empire (it was an Italian civitas imperialis, like Lucca) it was already building its own territorial state. Although the Genoese oligarchy aspired to full sovereignty, the Empire re- fused to grant Genoa more freedom than that accorded to German imperial cities. The conflict came to a head in the first half of the seventeenth century, especially the period 1623–37. Some Genoese citizens, a new and combative faction (the popolo grasso, composed of representatives of the guilds), sup- ported the emperor in order to gain power. Andrea Doria, founding father of the oligarchic republic (1528) and the leges novae (1576), erased not just the people’s political prerogatives but also their memory. The new popular party did not hesitate to enter the political fray (Ansaldi-Vachero and Ligalupo conspiracies, 1627–30), gaining the assistance of Charles Emanuel I, duke of Savoy. Probably the most notable aspect of this conflict was the „battle of writ- ings“. This was the first time that pamphlets, satirical prose works (the rag- guagli of Parnassus, inspired by Traiano Boccalini) and manifesti of the Genoese people were printed and disseminated beyond the borders of Liguria. The responses of the oligarchy, in contrast, remained unpublished, although this aristocracy would rule for nearly two centuries.