{"id":1259,"date":"2021-05-28T21:12:50","date_gmt":"2021-05-28T21:12:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dlf.uzh.ch\/sites\/camposanto\/?p=1259"},"modified":"2021-05-31T06:00:21","modified_gmt":"2021-05-31T06:00:21","slug":"charles-de-brosses-1709-1777-lettres-historiques-et-critiques-sur-litalie-1739-1740","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dlf.uzh.ch\/sites\/camposanto\/charles-de-brosses-1709-1777-lettres-historiques-et-critiques-sur-litalie-1739-1740\/","title":{"rendered":"Charles de Brosses (1709-1777), Lettres historiques et critiques sur l\u2019Italie<\/em> (1739\/1740)"},"content":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]\"\"<\/em><\/p>\n

Born into an aristocratic family in Dijon, Charles de Brosses studied law and was later appointed the president of the parliament in his hometown. As a scholar and philosopher, he had many interests, such as history, philology and linguistics. De Brosses \u00a0mostly stayed in Dijon and its surrounds during his lifetime, but between 1739 and 1740, he travelled to Italy. From Dijon, he headed to Avignon and sailed from Antibes to Genoa. In Italy, he visited major cities such as Venice, Bologna, Florence and Rome, travelling as far as Naples. During the trip, he sent letters to his friends with his impressions of what he saw and experienced. <\/em>Lettres Historiques et Critiques sur l\u2019Italieis a collection of those letters, published posthumously in 1799. Honest remarks are characteristic of de Brosses\u2019 letters. Interestingly, he refers to the style of architecture of the Camposanto as gothic. In his view, the Camposanto is a rather strange place, and he criticizes the frescoes, describing them as odd. \/DJ<\/em><\/p>\n

De Brosses, Lettres sur l Italie (excerpt)<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Edition:<\/strong> Charles de Brosses, Lettres Historiques Et Critiques Sur L’italie<\/em>, 3 vols. (Paris: Ponthieu, [1799]), 2:77-78.<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text]\n

Transcription<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Le campo santo, ou cimeti\u00e8re, est la troisi\u00e8me pi\u00e8ce [after the Cathedral and the Baptistery], plus singuli\u00e8re que les deux pr\u00e9c\u00e9dentes. C\u2019est un grand clo\u00eetre quarr\u00e9 qui enferme un pr\u00e9au tout de terre apport\u00e9 de J\u00e9rusalem, qui \u00e0 ce que l\u2019on pr\u00e9tend, \u00e9gaie mieux que nulle autre les m\u00e2nes des pauvres d\u00e9funtes. Le clo\u00eetre est d\u2019architecture gothique, assez joli, tout pav\u00e9 de tombes de marbre, contenant pour la plupart quelque chose de remarque. On a rang\u00e9 tout le long des murs un grand nombre de tombeaux antiques, lesquels ont donn\u00e9 lieu au savant ouvrage du cardinal Noris, Cenotaphium Pisanum<\/em>. Il y en a aussi quelques-uns modernes, dont les meilleurs sont ceux du jurisconsulte Decius et de Buon Compagni, oncle du pape Gr\u00e9goire XIII. Les murs sont tous peints \u00e0 fresque de la main de Giotto<\/em> d\u2019Orcagna<\/em>, de Benedetto<\/em>, etc., qui y ont repr\u00e9sent\u00e9 les histoires de la Bible d\u2019une mani\u00e8re fort bizarre, fort ridicule, parfaitement m\u00e9chante et tr\u00e8s-curieuse. Je me souviens d\u2019un No\u00eb montrant sa nudit\u00e9, pr\u00e8s duquel est une jeune fille qui, se bouchant les yeux avec la main, \u00e9carte les doigts de toute sa force pour ne point voir.”<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text]\n

Translation<\/strong><\/p>\n

The campo santo, or cemetery, is the third piece [after the Cathedral and the Baptistery], more unusual than the two preceding ones. It is a large square cloister that encloses an earthen courtyard brought from Jerusalem, which, it is said, better than any other, cheers up the spirits of the poor dead. The cloister is of gothic architecture, quite pretty, all paved with marble tombs, for the most part containing something of note. A great number of ancient tombs have been arranged along the walls, and these gave rise to the learned work of Cardinal Noris, Cenotaphium Pisanum<\/em>. There are also some modern ones, the best of which are those of the jurisconsult Decius [=Filippo Decio] and Buon Compagni [Boncompagni], uncle of Pope Gregory XIII. The walls are all painted in fresco by Giotto d’Orcagna, Benedetto, etc., who represented the stories of the Bible in a very strange, ridiculous, wicked and curious way. I remember a Noah showing his nakedness, near to which is a young girl who, covering her eyes with her hand, spreads her fingers with all her strength not to see.”<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/2″][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Born into an aristocratic family in Dijon, Charles de Brosses studied law and was later appointed the president of the parliament in his hometown. As a scholar and philosopher, he had many interests, such as history, philology and linguistics. De Brosses \u00a0mostly stayed in Dijon and its surrounds during his lifetime, but between 1739 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":541,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,8,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-18th-century","category-french","category-travel-account"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dlf.uzh.ch\/sites\/camposanto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dlf.uzh.ch\/sites\/camposanto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dlf.uzh.ch\/sites\/camposanto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dlf.uzh.ch\/sites\/camposanto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/541"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dlf.uzh.ch\/sites\/camposanto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1259"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/dlf.uzh.ch\/sites\/camposanto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1394,"href":"https:\/\/dlf.uzh.ch\/sites\/camposanto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259\/revisions\/1394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dlf.uzh.ch\/sites\/camposanto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dlf.uzh.ch\/sites\/camposanto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dlf.uzh.ch\/sites\/camposanto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}