Sicily as seen by others : travellers' accounts in eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

Abstract

Travel literature became one of the most sought-after and esteemed European literary genres during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Although travellers had been describing their voyages and journeys for centuries, descriptions from travel accounts during the eighteenth century witnessed unparalleled popularity for a variety of reasons. Improvement in transport facilitated travelling and, consequently, going to new places was not solely limited to explorers and soldiers, but became also possible to the normal traveller. A large number of ordinary citizens had the opportunity to travel abroad and record their experiences. They travelled to authenticate their reports through the real first-hand experience; to see how things really were instead of imagining how they might be. Literary itineraries went far beyond the mere recording of dates and events. They included descriptive accounts of the geographical terrain, monuments and historical places, churches and cathedrals, and cultures and customs of foreign lands. Very often, travellers sought the exotic, the distinct, the unfamiliar, and the other in the places they explored. Indeed, the descriptive analysis was regularly interspersed with what was different or outstanding about the foreign land and its inhabitants together with philosophical or moral reflections about what those differences might have implied. In conducting this study, various different kinds of sources were consulted. These can be categorized into primary and secondary sources. Due to the extensive sources dealing with visitors to Sicily, I limited my sources primarily to those written in English or else which have been translated into this language. Three main varieties of primary sources were consulted in formulating this study. The published itineraries of the travellers themselves were my main primary source. Other primary sources which proved to be valuable for my dissertation were the several contemporary articles and newspapers published during the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Reports on the trade and commerce of Sicily were also consulted and proved necessary to construct statistical information regarding agricultural produce in Sicily, and the island's imports and exports. These various primary data were the major sources tapped into for this dissertation. However, one cannot possibly do justice to such a study without some analysis of secondary literature on the matter. These ranged from books to articles from journals that dealt specifically with travelling during the two particular centuries. Researching this study was arduous because of the very limited travel accounts found in Malta dealing with Sicily. Although some are housed at the National Archives and the Library of the University of Malta, many more were obtained from the internet. The interlibrary loan service offered by the University Library proved little useful because it was not possible to obtain the majority of them since loans of books published before the twentieth century are very restricted. Indeed, I only succeeded in getting two microfilms. Consequently, several original travelogues were bought from abroad. Moreover, I decided to travel to the British Library in London in order to enhance my study. The trip was rewarding as much of the relevant material was researched. Researching and working on this dissertation proved to be very interesting and I am grateful to the Department of History for giving me this opportunity to undertake such a study.