RICERCA ITALIANA     

Research program

European culture and the problem of otherness: historiography, politics, science of man in modern Europe (XVI-XIX centuries)

University Co-ordinator

Università degli Studi di PISA - LINGUE E LETTERATURE ROMANZE - ()

Research Unit Leader

Gianluigi Goggi

Description

TITLE
SOME ASPECTS OF THE SOCIO-ANTHROPOLOGICAL IMAGINATION IN TRAVEL RELATIONS AND HISTORIOGRAPHY BETWEEN THE 16TH AND 18TH CENTURIES.

PROGRAM
This unity of research aims at analysing travel books and historical-geographical treatises starting from criteria emerging from recent contributions such as Ch. Marouby’s essay (1990) and S. Linon-Chipon’s voluminous “thèse” (2003). However different the approach and the methodology may be, it is useful to analyse how these works deal with various aspects of travelling literature and historical-geographical literature about “different” countries since the 16th to the 19th century in France.
In addition to these two volumes, it has recently been published F. Moureau’s collection of essays (2005). The author – a great expert of travel literature and, just for mentioning one of his positions, Director of the “Centre de recherche de la littérature des voyages (CRLV)” – deeply explores the relations between the France of Louis XIV and, more in general, of the âge classique and the rest of the world, thus underlying the theatrical “scenography” which characterises the representation of otherness in that age.
I. “LE MONDE PAR DEÇÀ ET LE MOND PAR DELÀ” – Since Amerigo Vespucci’s Mundus Novus, descriptions of the New World (and in particular of Brasil) characterise the new continent as totally “different”. It is a both a physical-geographical difference (with its fabolous or tremendous features) and a social and human one (with its strange usages and habits: anthropophagy or cannibalism, “atheism”, etc.). The iconography which accompanies the descriptions underlines the exceptional peculiarity of the New World and especially that of Brasil, from a German wood-engraving of 1505 (with a caption extracted from a passage of Vespucci’s Mundus Novus) representing for the first time South America Indians (cfr. W. C. Sturtevant, “First Visual Images of Native America”, First Images of America. The Impact of the New World on the Old, ed. by F. Chiappelli, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London, University of California Press, 1976, t, I, p. 417-454).
Vespucci’s glance on the New World reflects the point of view of the European starting-point: from this point of view, the New World implies a series of negations or upsettings of all fundamental European institutions: lack of political power, lack of laws and rules, lack of private property, lack of alimentary taboos (taboo of human flesh). It is an extremely significant example of the “rhétorique de la négativité” (Marouby) which is the foundation of primitivism and concentrates the “ethnological” knowledge of a lot of the sixteenth-eighteenth century travelling literature: the “different” world is then a world turned upside down or being poles apart in comparison with the starting-point. The observer of this upside down world has an ambivalent attitude: on the one side, the novelty is alarming and sinister (it represents nightmare scenarios) while on the other it has some features resembling to the Eden or to a paradise.
The same ambivalent behaviour appears, mutatis mutandis, in French texts of the second half of the 16tth century. These texts, called corpus huguenot relatif à l’Amérique (M. Bataillon), have been fundamental in defining the image of the Brasilian “savage” and more in general of the American “savage”. Most of the authors were protestant and their religious faith is extremely significant in guiding their attitude towards the world of “savages” (Lestringant). Amongst these books, a special mention goes to Jean de Léry’s travels book (Histoire d’un voyage fait en la terre du Brésil, 1578) and to the collection of travels initiated by Théodore de Bry at the end of XVIth century and continued by his sons: it was published in Frankfurt, Germany, with a rich iconographical apparatus. Two well-known Montaigne’s essays, Des Cannibales (1580) and Des Coches (1588) quite resemble this German corpus.
Starting from previous works, in particular some studies by F. Lestringant and G. Goggi’s presentation Le Brésil entre réve et réalité dans la littérature de voyages et dans les compilations du XVIIIe siècle at the round table on The Perception of the Colonial World in Eighteenth-Century Encyclopedias and Compilations (coordinated by Hans-Jürgen Lüsebrink and Clorinda Donato) at the 11th International Conference on the Enlightenment (Los Angeles, 3th-10th of August 2003), the intention is to thoroughly explore the imagery of Brasil as it is represented in these contributions. A special attention will be paid to the dichotomic organisation of geographical space in a world “par-deçà” (Europe) and a world “par-delà” (the New World), a dichotomy which will influence the whole vision of American societies and will persist until the Eighteenth century. Other works which will be carefully considered are La Popelinière’s (Lancelot, Voisin de) Les Trois Mondes (1582) and Jean de Laet’s Histoire du Nouveau Monde ou Description des Indes Occidentales (1640; first Dutch edition of 1625). They play a very important role in the debate on the New World: the former was soon forgotten while the latter remained a fundamental reference during the Eighteenth century.
The more general aim is to reconstruct as fully as possible the imagery of Brasil as it took shape between the 16th and 18th century and which then finally came together in the Histoire des deux Indes by G.T. Raynal (volume IX).
The research in this direction is partially finalised to the preparation of commentary on book IX of Raynal’s work, whose responsible – for the edition of the work which will be published by the “Centre international d’étude du XVIIIe siècle” of Ferney –Voltaire directed by Andrew Brown – is G. Goggi. The first of the five volumes will be published in 2007.
II. THE DISPUTE OVER THE NEW WORLD – The dichotomic organisation of the geographical space opposing the New World to the Old is an essential aspect of the European vision of America. The trend is to “reduce” the difference of the new continent (in particular socio-anthropological one) by assimilating the newly discovered American societies to ancient societies (Greek, Roman and others). The ethnological comparativism which derives from this attitude will be widely applied in the Eighteenth century: there are not only Lafitau’s works but also works by Scottish Enlightenment authors or by Démeunier. Notwithstanding these attempts of “reduction” the dichotomy remains clear and it underlies the “dispute over the New World” studied in A. Gerbi’s work (for French aspects of the dispute, see also the recent work by Ph. Roger).
This research, which will have as its bases G. Goggi’s former studies, will be focused on Voltaire’s Essai sur les moeurs and Raynal’s Histoire des deux Indes in order to deepen the analysis on the dispute (see G Goggi’s article “Amériques” in the Dictionnaire générale de Voltaire, Paris, Champion, 2003).
This research is finalised: first, to G. Goggi’s collaboration to the edition of the Essai sur les Moeurs by Voltaire, in course of preparation by an international équipe of researchers directed by Catherine Volpilhac-Auger at the Voltaire Foundation of Oxford; 2) secondly, to the edition of volumes XV-XIX of Raynal’s Histoire des deux Indes which is being prepared, under G. Goggi’s direction, at the “Centre international d’étude du XVIIIe siècle” of Ferney-Voltaire.
III – THE TRAVELS AS READ BY RADICATI OF PASSERANO- Strictly connected with the research field about the otherness of the “Brasilian” and American world is the analysis that Tomaso Cavallo would like to carry out on the ethnographic documentation got from travel books contained in the work of Radicati of Passerano. In Radicati’s work, following Locke’s lesson, this “ethnographic” documentation is finalised, on the one end, to criticise the innate ideas and, on the other, to criticise religion. It would be interesting to have a closer look at the various aspects of this “ethnographic” documentation, paying particular attention to the following points:
1) The success that the figure of the “cannibal” (as the symbol of total otherness, as created by Montaigne!) has in his work. On that respect, the researches carried out by F. Lestringant will be thoroughly examined (the book on the cannibal, as well as the one on the Voyage en eucharistie), alongside with researches of other experts (i.e. Astrid Wendt, Kannibalismus in Brasilien and Daniel Cottom, Cannibals; see Bibliography).
2) Radicati’s references to the work which is the source of the “black legend” on the Spanish conquest of America, that is Bartolomeo de Las Casas, La Destrucíon de las Indias (Seville, 1552; see Las Casas’ biography by Mahn-Lot). Special attention will be devoted to the French edition of the work by an Huguenot, Jacques de Miggrode, with the title Tyrannies & cruautés des Espagnols (1579).
3) The interess shown by Radicati for China. This feature will be explored starting from the exam of the Nouveaux Mémoires de la Chine by Le Comte, while for studying the image of China prevailing in Radicati’s age the starting point will be the recent thesis by Isabelle Landry-Deron, La Preuve par la Chine.
4) The image of the American savage which Radicati gets from the Histoire naturelle et morale des îles Antilles de l’Amérique (Rotterdam, 1658) by César de Rochefort. The attaempt will be to define the relation of that work with the other Histoire about Antilles, the one by Du Tertre (Histoire générale des îles de S. Christophe, de la Guadaloupe, de la Martinique, etc. Paris, 1654). The study will be based on the work of J. De Dampierre, Essai sur les sources de l’histoire des Antilles françaises, 1492-1664, Paris, 1904.
IV – THE TRAVEL TO ITALY – Within her researches on the the use of correspondence in some eighteenth-century travel relations (see M. Gille, La “lettre d’Italie” au dix-huitième siècle: forme et signification, in Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century, 219, 1983, pp. 257-272), Mireille Gille has devoted a particular attention to the travel to Italy of President de Brosses. Then she turned her attention to the relations of the judge with some relevant characters of Eighteenth-century Italian scene and discovered the finding from John Register, professor at the University of Durham, of a close correspondence between the French traveller and the Florentine abbey Antonio Niccolini. Gille will collaborate with the English historian to the publication of this unpublished important correspondence which, in addition to enlighting the genesis of the Lettres Familières, gives precious both on the Italian events of the period 1740-1770 and the motives leading the foreign policy of European States in the same period. This study will represent the first phase of Mireille Gille’s contribution, within this research project, to the theme of otherness in the early 18th century.
With the aim of deeply investigating the origins of the Lettres Familières, Mireille Gille would like to study the enarly totally unpublished correspondence of one of President de Brosses’ travel mates, Lacurne de Sainte-Palaye, who had contacts with a great number of eighteen-century French and Italian scholars. Some of his already published letters supplement the information contained in the Lettres Familières and deal in particular with his researches on the Middle Age carried out in the Italian libraries.
Another research line relates with the study of travels to Italy during the emigration period: the most significant travel relation is undoubtedly the one by the Comte d’Espinchal. As John Renwick specifies in his Catalogue de la Bibliothèque du Marquis d’Espinchal (Publication de l’Institut d’Etudes du Massif Central et du Centre de Recherches Révolutionnaires et Romantiques, Clermont-Ferrand, 1988), he accompanied the Prince of Condé in Italy (September 1789-March 1791) and transcribed in a dense diary – for the most part not edited yet - many observations on people he met.
V - EUROPE – ASIA: ÂGE CLASSIQUE AND TRAVELS – ROMANTIC AGE AND TRAVEL TO THE EAST - As already P. Hazard pointed out, the âge classique is obsessed with stability and shuns any experience of change. Well, travels damage this situation and introduce the historical period which has been effectively defined as “crisis of the European conscience”. In this framework, Barbara Sommovigo will try to reconsider the relations between the court of Louis XIV and the court of Siam, starting from the essential studies by Van der Cruysse (Louis XIV et le Siam). The diplomatic, or semi-diplomatic, missions which establish the relationship between the two kingdoms will be analysed in detail, paying particular attention to the symbology and the scenery of the meetings. In fact it is the scenery that allows to recognise (and underline) the otherness but at the same time to overcome it and “reduce” it. In a second phase, the attention will be focused on a specific book, the first travel report of the Jesuit Tachard (1686), with the intention of preparing its critical edition.
Another research trend will aim at clarifying some issues about Robert Challe’s travel “aux Indes orientales”: Claire Vovelle will be in charge of this study, starting from the recent updated edition of the Voyage (2002), published by Frédéric Deloffre.
Finally Norina Fornasier will continue investigating the romantic travel to the East, with special care to the Voyage en Orient by Nerval.
VII - MEETINGS- It is foreseen to organise three workshops or round tables on these specific research themes: 1) meeting on North and South America in the travel literature (mainly French) from 16th to 18th centuries; 2) meeting on the Voltaire’s Essai sur les mœurs; 3) a round table on "âge classique" and travel.