Die Ősterreichische Schulreform in der habsburghischen Lombardei

For a long time the history of schooling in Italian territories which were under Habsburg dominion has been politically conditioned: there was a bias against Austria, particularly with regard to the age of Restoration, both because Austria was the historical enemy of Italian unity and because it was a Catholic State. Lay and nationalistic historiography preferred to stress the importance of Italian educationalists and intellectual, or the age of Maria Theresa and Joseph II. In the last twenty years new approaches and more objective researches have shown the goodness of Habsburg policy not only in the age of Enlightenment, but also in the age of Restoration, when many elementary schools for boys and girls were opened and there was a strong improvement in teachers’ training. The adoption of Vincenz Eduard Milde’s pedagogy meant a step forward towards scientific and advanced teaching and educating: the criticism against Austrian dominion, accused of a heavy confessionalization of school, is not really grounded.