SOURCE: MacPhail, Eric. “Nationalism and Italianism In The Work of Joachim Du Bellay” Yearbook of Comparative and General Literature 39 (1990-1991): 47-53

In the essay below, MacPhail casts several of Du Bellay's works in the light of the political climate of Renaissance-era Europe.

We ordinarily associate nationalism with the political and cultural upheavals of the nineteenth century and indeed the first attested use of the term in French is from a text of 1798 written in the aftermath of the Revolution. Apparently it was l'Abbé Barruel who coined the term “nationalisme” as a pejorative designation for the secular ideology of the Revolution, which he denounced as a degeneration of Christian ethics: “Le nationalisme prit la place de l'amour général. … Alors, il fut permis de mépriser les étrangers, de les tromper et de les offenser. Cette vertu fut appelée patriotisme” (Girardet 7; Nationalism took the place of charity...