I do suspect the letters are at the Italy Trip Website, which after all wants to document Wilhelmine‘s Italian (and French) journey as detailed as possible, but what mystifies me is why they didn‘t put the diary up while they were at it - presumably copyright again, like with Lehndorff‘s diary (first volume) cunningly republished just when the copyright for Schmidt-Lötzen‘s translation runs out.
Anyway, I very much look forward to reading the Italian diary!
I was reading Blanning, and I ran into this observation on European visitors in Italy on their Grand Tours:
They came equipped with a yardstick against which contemporary conditions were almost certain to be found wanting, namely a classical education. Most famously, the contrast between the classical past and the Christian present inspired one of the greatest historiographical and literary creations of the eighteenth century, as Edward Gibbon recorded in his Memoirs: 'It was at Rome, on the 15th of October 1764, as I sat musing amid the ruins of the capitol, while the bare-footed friars were singing vespers in the temple of Jupiter [the Church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli], that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city first started to my mind.'
I knew that it was a trope to go to Italy and complain, (I think selenak said women were more likely to accept current-day Italy on its own terms?), but this instance particularly struck me, since I've read (and liked) The Decline and Fall, and I didn't konw that this was how he got his inspiration.
I thinkselenaksaid women were more likely to accept current-day Italy on its own terms?
Yes, after reading the Anna Amalia biography, because that's something she, Wilhelmine and Fanny Mendelssohn - travellling at very different points from each other - have in common. Whereas, Goethe excepted (who loved it there), you're far more prone in male visitors to get to that passage where they complain about how low Italy has sunk since the Roman days. Mind you, after having read what Gian Gastone's Dad did to Florence during his 53 years bigotted reign, I would empathize for Florentine visitors during that era, but not looking back to Rome, looking back to the Renaissance!
I've now done a comparison of the first few letters, and I've found that there's very little overlap between what's in the Italy Trip Website and what's in the volume I procured. The website definitely uses the diary + letters volume as a source, but:
1. Most of the letters in the volume aren't in the diary and vice versa. This makes sense, since the letters in the volume start from January 1756, and Wilhelmine was back in Bayreuth starting in August 1755. Burrell, the editor, seems to be very interested in Wilhelmine's advice to Fritz on the war. 2. The letters that are on the website are heavily excerpted with ellipses. 2a. If you're up to 18th century handwriting and French, the facsimile of the few letters that are on the website is the whole thing, but the transcription + German translation is a fraction of the whole. 3. The readings of the letters that are in both website and book aren't always the same, according to the website.
So it seems there *is* some value in the manual labor of doing the OCR cleanup so these can be put through Google translate, unless they're in Volz or Solange wir zu zweit sind (which I don't own).
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Re: Wilhelmine travel diary + Italy letters
Anyway, I very much look forward to reading the Italian diary!
Re: Wilhelmine travel diary + Italy letters
They came equipped with a yardstick against which contemporary conditions were almost certain to be found wanting, namely a classical education. Most famously, the contrast between the classical past and the Christian present inspired one of the greatest historiographical and literary creations of the eighteenth century, as Edward Gibbon recorded in his Memoirs: 'It was at Rome, on the 15th of October 1764, as I sat musing amid the ruins of the capitol, while the bare-footed friars were singing vespers in the temple of Jupiter [the Church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli], that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city first started to my mind.'
I knew that it was a trope to go to Italy and complain, (I think
Re: Wilhelmine travel diary + Italy letters
Yes, after reading the Anna Amalia biography, because that's something she, Wilhelmine and Fanny Mendelssohn - travellling at very different points from each other - have in common. Whereas, Goethe excepted (who loved it there), you're far more prone in male visitors to get to that passage where they complain about how low Italy has sunk since the Roman days. Mind you, after having read what Gian Gastone's Dad did to Florence during his 53 years bigotted reign, I would empathize for Florentine visitors during that era, but not looking back to Rome, looking back to the Renaissance!
Re: Wilhelmine travel diary + Italy letters
1. Most of the letters in the volume aren't in the diary and vice versa. This makes sense, since the letters in the volume start from January 1756, and Wilhelmine was back in Bayreuth starting in August 1755. Burrell, the editor, seems to be very interested in Wilhelmine's advice to Fritz on the war.
2. The letters that are on the website are heavily excerpted with ellipses.
2a. If you're up to 18th century handwriting and French, the facsimile of the few letters that are on the website is the whole thing, but the transcription + German translation is a fraction of the whole.
3. The readings of the letters that are in both website and book aren't always the same, according to the website.
So it seems there *is* some value in the manual labor of doing the OCR cleanup so these can be put through Google translate, unless they're in Volz or Solange wir zu zweit sind (which I don't own).