I'd have to see your list of notable people. There's notable and then there's notable. :) Also, different areas had their "golden age" at different times, and I would think you'd have to factor in their population levels and wealth in those periods, not necessarily in 1850 to get a more complete picture. However, just as a generality I w…
I'd have to see your list of notable people. There's notable and then there's notable. :) Also, different areas had their "golden age" at different times, and I would think you'd have to factor in their population levels and wealth in those periods, not necessarily in 1850 to get a more complete picture. However, just as a generality I would say that since the Middle Ages there was a corridor of innovation, etc., which ran from northern Germany and their sea ports in the north, Holland/Belgium, down through to Central Italy and spread west from there. I believe it was because of trade connections running from the east all the way north. New ideas traveled that trade corridor. I don't think it can be down to unified, stable governments, lack of corruption, and relatively long periods of peace, because none of those things apply to Italy.
I am looking to improve the analysis in the near future by taking into account the varying population estimates at all times.
With that said, at this point I'm not trying to factor in stuff like wealth or other things. Because, at this point, my goal here is only to measure the extent of these differences, not explain their causes. People are, of course, welcome to forward explanations for this. And I appreciate you doing just that.
Stable government and lack of corruption probably did apply to Northern Italy. Yes, Italy as a whole was not unified, but there were local governments, and these local governments in the North of the country were probably functional for the time. To this day, Northern Italy is much less corrupt than Southern Italy, and produces a very respectable amount of elite science, especially considering the Italian brain drain.
I'd have to see your list of notable people. There's notable and then there's notable. :) Also, different areas had their "golden age" at different times, and I would think you'd have to factor in their population levels and wealth in those periods, not necessarily in 1850 to get a more complete picture. However, just as a generality I would say that since the Middle Ages there was a corridor of innovation, etc., which ran from northern Germany and their sea ports in the north, Holland/Belgium, down through to Central Italy and spread west from there. I believe it was because of trade connections running from the east all the way north. New ideas traveled that trade corridor. I don't think it can be down to unified, stable governments, lack of corruption, and relatively long periods of peace, because none of those things apply to Italy.
I am looking to improve the analysis in the near future by taking into account the varying population estimates at all times.
With that said, at this point I'm not trying to factor in stuff like wealth or other things. Because, at this point, my goal here is only to measure the extent of these differences, not explain their causes. People are, of course, welcome to forward explanations for this. And I appreciate you doing just that.
Stable government and lack of corruption probably did apply to Northern Italy. Yes, Italy as a whole was not unified, but there were local governments, and these local governments in the North of the country were probably functional for the time. To this day, Northern Italy is much less corrupt than Southern Italy, and produces a very respectable amount of elite science, especially considering the Italian brain drain.