Abstract

The purpose of this work is to observe and understand the values that early modern thinkers, historians and scholars attributed to the ideas of «people» and «civilization.» The analysis was carried out using the most up-to-date studies and philological tools, which have made it possible to give the terms «plebs,» «people,» and «civilization» a meaning consistent with the social and institutional context: the formae mentis and political ideas that spread in Naples between the 16th and 17th centuries. From the dialogue between the sources, it appears clear that the people were not a homogeneous body and their identity cannot be identified with a specific social group. The people were a composite aggregate, in which there existed a remarkable variety of interests, often divergent, expressing completely irreconcilable viewpoints of the world and society.