"When did we start being modern?"

This volume grows out of the discussions and outcomes of the CIRM international conference held at the University of Bari on 17-18 October 2024, bringing together contributors from diverse disciplinary and institutional backgrounds that reflect the inherently multifaceted character of the notion of modernity. Rather than advancing a single, unified definition of modernity, the contributions here collected explore how its meanings have been articulated, negotiated, and contested across different disciplines, genres, and media. Each essay demonstrates that modernity does not unfold evenly or uniformly, but refracts through distinct intellectual, aesthetic, and material practices, generating multiple and sometimes conflicting trajectories of change. By placing these heterogeneous viewpoints in dialogue, this volume invites readers to reflect on what it has meant, and what it still means, to orient oneself within the temporal, epistemic, and cultural horizons of the modern world.