In this lively travelogue, Jarves takes the reader on a journey through Italy, exploring the country's rich history, culture, and customs. He provides detailed descriptions of the people, places, and traditions he encounters along the way, offering a unique perspective on Italian life and society. A must-read for anyone planning a trip to Italy or interested in the country's cultural heritage. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1883 edition. Excerpt: ... XVIII NEW AND OLD WORLD MANNERS That strenuous belief in social caste which finds practical expression in the family feeling, "Stand aside; I am better than you," is the dry-rot of British civilization. It isolates sets and individuals, poisons social happiness, misplaces and mismates people, and breeds classes of Ishmaelites, whose sympathies and fellowship are limited to their own restricted spheres. One might suppose that the chief sufferers would be inspired with a desire for a sounder social constitution. But the malign influence of snobbery intensifies as it descends in society's ordering. I knew an elderly person afflicted with the notion that at some remote period royal blood had found its way into her ancestral veins, a notion which, even if true, had not prevented her from depending on the charity of strangers--republicans too--for a home. Having occasion one evening to go out, the favorite servant of the mistress of the house, a highly respectable Italian woman, volunteered to be her escort, adding, as the crowd was great, " Perhaps you had better take my arm." The English lady par excellence, as she considered herself, not daring to be separated, in the haughtiest and most offensive manner daintily took hold of the upper part of her sleeve with two fingers, holding it as if she were touching carrion, a pantomime which amused even more than offended the goodnatured Italian. This manifestation was an apposite example of the base manners which mean ideas of caste generate. Unfortunately, they are not very uncommon in some shape or other, stinging to the spirit when not brutally violent to the body. Can we marvel, then, at the distaste in which many foreigners hold those Anglo-Saxons whose lives are passed in an unworthy bondage...

The historiography of the Italian Renaissance has been much studied, but generally in the context of a few key figures. Much less appreciated is the extent of the enthusiasm for the subject in the 19th and early 20th centuries, when the subject was 'discovered' by travellers and men and women of letters, historians, artists, architects and photographers, and by collectors on both sides of the Atlantic. The essays in Victorian and Edwardian Responses to the Italian Renaissance explore the breadth of the responses stimulated by the encounter between the British, the Americans and the Italians of the Renaissance. The volume approaches the subject from an interdisciplinary perspective. While recognising the abiding importance of the familiar 'great names', it seeks to draw attention to a wider cast of people, many of whom led colourful, energetic lives, knew Italy well, and wrote eloquently about the country and its Renaissance. Several essays show that 'Renaissance studies' became a field in which female historians could explore areas of relevance to the 'New Woman'. Other chapters examine the aims and politics of collecting and the place of the collector in literature and in the rediscovery of Renaissance artists. The contribution of teachers and other less formal champions of the Italian Renaissance is explored, as is the role of photographers who re-framed and re-viewed Florence - the Renaissance city - for Victorian and later eyes.

Italian Forgers takes an unorthodox approach to the fascinating topic of art forgery, focusing not on art forgery per se, but on the major forgery scandals that shifted the Italian art market in response to constant, and often intense, demand for Italian objects. By focusing on power dynamics that both precipitated forgery scandals and forged Italian cultural identities, this book connects the debates and discussions about three well-known Italian forgers—Giovanni Bastianini, Icilio Joni, and Alceo Dossena—to anchor and investigate the mechanics of the Italian art market from unification through the fascist era. Carol Helstosky examines foreign accounts of transactions and Italian writings about the art market. The actions and words of Italian dealers illustrate how the Italian art and antiquities market was an undeniably modern industry, on par with tourism in terms of its contribution to the Italian economy and to understandings of Italian identity. These accounts also reveal how dealers, artists, go-betweens, guides, and restorers worked to not only meet the intense demand for Italian products but also to develop highly sophisticated business practices to maintain financial stability and respond to shifts in demand consciously (but not always conscientiously). Italian Forgers weaves a compelling narrative about the history of Italian identity, forgery, and the value of the past. As a result, Helstosky brings historical perspective to the study of art forgery and art fraud. She reveals how historical circumstances and structural imbalances of cultural power shaped the market for art and antiquities and amplified incidents of art deception and forgery scandals.