Una sfida accolta: la monarchia come oggetto di studio della Storia costituzionale

Paolo Colombo’s essay retraces the evolution of the Italian constitutional history in the last two decades from the point of view of the studies on constitutional monarchies, especially the Italian one. The subject of the research is seen as a challenge that, starting from the end of the Nineties (of the last century), encourages some scholars of history of political institutions to renovate the analysis’ methods and the criteria for identifying the sources. Thus, several important lines of interpretation on the political and institutional DNA of our country have been renovated. It is also in this way that the constitutional history carves out a space for herself, consciously and measuredly autonomous from the one of the administrative history that had marked the first decades of the Italian history of political institutions. Therefore, the essay bring to light the future research prospects and the new challenges waiting for the constitutional history (and, in general, for the history of the institutions) both from a strictly scientific point of view and from that of the role to play and the goals to pursue in the broader framework of the Italian cultural life.