Vincenzo Cuoco

Vincenzo Cuoco was an Italian writer and political theorist. He is mainly remembered for his Saggio Storico sulla Rivoluzione Napoletana del 1799. He is considered as one of the precursors of the realist school and Italian liberalism. Cuoco adapted the critique of political rationalism of Edmund Burke and Joseph de Maistre for liberal ends, and has been described as a better historian than either of them. He influenced many subsequent Italian intellectuals, from Ugo Foscolo and Alessandro Manzoni to Bertrando and Silvio Spaventa to Benedetto Croce and Antonio Gramsci.