Victorian travellers, Apennine landscapes and the development of cultural heritage in eastern Liguria, c. 1875-1914

This article, which focuses on Italian Apennine landscapes in the northern region of Liguria, investigates late nineteenth-century travel from the perspective of historical ecology. It argues that travellers' observations and reflections can be rich sources for landscape history, and that travel writing is therefore a worthwhile source for ecologists. However, travel writing was a conflicted genre torn between such realistic visions of landscape and more common aesthetic ones, as contemporary views of the perceived picturesqueness of coastal Liguria demonstrate. Historians of travel have been much more interested in 'aesthetic travellers'. in part because the meaning of travel for identity construction is a more fashionable topic among historians tha ecology. Policymakers at both UNESCO and the EU have unfortunately espoused a visions of 'cultural landscape' based on aesthetics. Instead a more precise understanding of how past societies created landscapes through practice is essential if these are to be maintained in the future

Victorian travellers, Apennine landscapes and the development of cultural heritage in eastern Liguria, c. 1875-1914

This article, which focuses on Italian Apennine landscapes in the northern region of Liguria, investigates late nineteenth-century travel from the perspective of historical ecology. It argues that travellers' observations and reflections can be rich sources for landscape history, and that travel writing is therefore a worthwhile source for ecologists. However, travel writing was a conflicted genre torn between such realistic visions of landscape and more common aesthetic ones, as contemporary views of the perceived picturesqueness of coastal Liguria demonstrate. Historians of travel have been much more interested in 'aesthetic travellers'. in part because the meaning of travel for identity construction is a more fashionable topic among historians tha ecology. Policymakers at both UNESCO and the EU have unfortunately espoused a visions of 'cultural landscape' based on aesthetics. Instead a more precise understanding of how past societies created landscapes through practice is essential if these are to be maintained in the future

Milan, Genoa and the Alps: early medieval exchanges across a region

In this contribution I consider how Milan and its inhabitants were connected both north and south in the early medieval period. I focus on exchanges understood as giving and receiving, buying and selling, leasing and renting, but also encompassing the more general sense of cultural interchange. All such exchanges certainly helped to connect one place (or region) to another both physically and conceptually. As the connectedness of Milan to its hinterland was one of the main themes of my recent book The Lands of Saint Ambrose (2019) I deal with that in the second part of this chapter, as the formation of a large hinterland was a fundamental part of Milan’s importance as a settlement in the early medieval period. One question I address throughout, is whether there were any significant connections between those who lived in the city and those who visited it from elsewhere, especially, given the theme of this conference, from north of the Alps. Another aspect of the same question though is how or if the Mediterranean was connected to the north via Milan.In this contribution I consider how Milan and its inhabitants were connected both north and south in the early medieval period. I focus on exchanges understood as giving and receiving, buying and selling, leasing and renting, but also encompassing the more general sense of cultural interchange. All such exchanges certainly helped to connect one place (or region) to another both physically and conceptually. As the connectedness of Milan to its hinterland was one of the main themes of my recent book The Lands of Saint Ambrose (2019) I deal with that in the second part of this chapter, as the formation of a large hinterland was a fundamental part of Milan’s importance as a settlement in the early medieval period. One question I address throughout, is whether there were any significant connections between those who lived in the city and those who visited it from elsewhere, especially, given the theme of this conference, from north of the Alps. Another aspect of the same question though is how or if the Mediterranean was connected to the north via Milan

Narratives of success and narratives of failure: representations of the career of King Hugh of Italy (c.885-948)

Hugh of Arles, King of Italy between 926 and 947, has come to be regarded as one of the more successful kings of Italy in the tenth century. The evidence of his charters supports this conclusion, showing how effectively he managed to insert members of his own Provençal family into the existing political fabric of northern Italy. Contemporary narrative sources tell the same story but as one of failure. For Rather of Verona, Liutprand of Cremona and even Flodoard of Reims, Hugh and his family were suspect and their sexual mores questionable. Their texts intervened in contemporary politics not simply as records of Hugh’s inadequacies but as real political actors which helped to make that failure happen

‘Saved from the sordid axe’: representation and understanding of pine trees by English visitors to Italy in the eighteenth and nineteenth century

Pine trees were frequently depicted and celebrated by nineteenth century English artists and travellers in Italy. The amateur artist and connoisseur Sir George Beaumont was horrified to discover in 1821 that many Roman stone pines were being felled and paid a landowner to preserve a prominent tree on Monte Mario. William Wordsworth saw this tree in 1837 and celebrated that it had been ‘Saved from the sordid axe by Beaumont's care’. Pines continued to be painted by amateurs and professionals including Elizabeth Fanshawe, William Strangways, Edward Lear, John Ruskin. These trees were also an important element of local agriculture; in parts of Liguria they were grown in vineyards in an unusual type of coltura promiscua providing both support for the vines and fertiliser from pine needles; in Tuscany and Ravenna pine plantations and forests were an important source of pine nuts. In this paper we combine the analysis of local land management records, paintings and traveller’s accounts to reclaim differing understandings of the role of the pine in nineteenth century Italy

Early Medieval Genoa

The earliest coherent written documentation for Genoa in the early medieval period is from the latter part of the tenth century. Charters documenting the property transactions of several local churches (notably San Siro and Santo Stefano) reveal that the bishop and his clergy had property rights at the extremities of costal Liguria and in the interior. Fifty eight texts have survived between 916 and 1000 Synopsis, A Companion to Medieval Genoa (Brill, 2017) 3 and the first part of this chapter is devoted to their detailed analysis. This number is rather fewer than for comparable Italian urban centres and that fact needs to be explained. Nor has a substantial local historical narrative survived until the twelfth century, albeit more typical of wider Italian patterns. Some sense of local identities does emerge from short hagiographical narratives, especially one dealing with the translation of the bones of San Remo from that site to Genoa itself. There is also a sense of civic community within the famous diploma of Berengar II and Adalbert issued on 18 July 958. These meagre texts allow some conclusions to be reached about the social and political structure of the town in the tenth century but not before. Its economic functions are better understood from recent archaeological work on the port itself which covers a much longer historical time span and that will be summarised here. The chapter will conclude by arguing that taking the surviving evidence as a whole in the current state of knowledge Genoa's connections with the interior were at least as important for its historical development as the more celebrated connection with the sea. The narrative is neither one-dimensional nor uni-directional and it is likely, for example, that access to the sea via the port of Genoa was more important to the economic functioning of the Carolingian Empire than can be demonstrated from current evidence

Art and landscape history: British artists in nineteenth-century Val d’Aosta (NW Italy)

This paper explores the value of landscape and topographical art for understanding contemporary landscapes of the Val d’Aosta, NW Italy. The region became very popular with British tourists in the early nineteenth-century and several amateur and professional artists depicted its landscapes. The paper focuses on the case study of Saint-Pierre, its castle and the surrounding landscapes, examining views by amateur artists like Elizabeth Fortescue and professionals such as John Brett. The examination of art, alongside written accounts, historical cartography and field data, provides insights into the landscape history of the Val d’Aosta. The analysis of the artists’ representations raises questions of landscape identity and characterisation and provides evidence for subtle changes in local land use practices which have had a significant impact on land use change. We suggest that this artistic heritage should be recognized as a source to help improve sustainable tourism in the area and to assist in the development of current land management policies

Botanical relics of a lost landscape: herborising ‘upon the Cliffs about the Pharos’ in Genoa, March 1664

This paper uses approaches derived from historical ecology to show how knowledge can be gained about the historical and cultural value of neglected urban landscapes. We study the area around Genoa’s lighthouse and consider the long-term survival of individual plant species and some implications for landscape conservation. We examine topographical representations over the last 500 years to establish the landscape context of the lighthouse. We then analyse the records of plants collected by two English naturalists of the seventeenth century, John Ray and Francis Willughby, and demonstrate how the plants were identified and documented. We survey the current vegetation to establish whether any species identified in 1664 still grow at the site. This exploration of botanical ancestry at a local scale makes it possible to demonstrate cultural–historical values of the lighthouse rocks and their vegetation which should be considered as part of the cultural heritage of the city of Genoa

Travelling in Italy during Turner's lifetime

The number of British travellers to Italy in search of health, education and increasingly leisure grew substantially during Turner’s lifetime. Like Turner, travellers recorded their observations in journals and diaries, and some turned their experiences into printed books and guidebooks. This essay examines this material and provides a vivid insight into the rich environment that shaped Turner’s artistic development