"Expedition into Sicily" di Richard Payne Knight: esperienze di viaggio di un illuminista inglese di fine '700
Author(s)
Severini, Olivia
Date Issued
May 25, 2012
Type
Doctoral Thesis
Abstract
Expedition into Sicily by Richard Payne Knight, the text subject of this PhD thesis, is the account of
the journey through Sicily taken, at the end of the Eighteenth Century, by a rich Englishman,
together with two equally wealthy watercolorists: the renowned German landscape painter Philipp
Hackert and the English amateur Charles Gore. Believed lost for more than two centuries, Knight’s
manuscript was rediscovered only in 1980, and published for the first time in English in 1986. Aim
of my thesis is to introduce this work to the Italian audience through a critical translation, and to
point out its originality as well as its internal coherence. Referring to the studies of those who
preceded me, I have tried to demonstrate the substantial unity of the text, along with the fact that
this internal consistency was intended to convey a very precise message: freedom is a necessary
condition for human excellence. This is a message clearly influenced by Enlightenment culture: the
young Knight saw his journey through Sicily as a return to the classical origins of Western culture,
a journey back in time to the Winkelmanian ideal of noble simplicity and quiet grandeur. His return
to the origins, however, was hampered by the reality of Eighteenth Century Sicily. The experience
of the present crept gradually into his conception of an ideal past, imposing to his watchful eye a
reality of ignorance and misery. These dramatic conditions had been brought by a corrupted ruling
class and a too powerful clergy, in other words by a lack of freedom. In the analysis of the scenes
depicting his travel experiences (featuring at least two thirds of the text), Knight examines the
dichotomy between past and present, and finally, in the end, he gives a more general form to his
ideas, coming to the conclusion that Sicily could return to the greatness of its origins only after a
revolutionary movement involving the whole of Europe. It's interesting to note that these reflections
preceded of a few years the French Revolution, which, despite having profoundly altered the
European balance, was not enough to bring out the Sicily from its backwardness.
The first chapter of the thesis contains the complete translation of the Expedition into Sicily
in Italian with the English text opposite. The second chapter: The author, the topic, and the history
of the manuscript, is divided into two sections. The first section [2.1]: The life and works of Richard
Payne Knight, intends to frame the figure of the author of the diary and provide an overview of his
works, while the second section [2.2]: The long journey of a travel diary reconstructs, on the basis
of objective data and conjectures, the genesis and history of the manuscript of the Expedition. The
third chapter: The context of Knight’s trip, traces the socio-cultural context of the trip to Sicily and
is composed of five sections. The first section [3.1]: The historical context: from England to Sicily,
briefly describes the historical and political situation of Europe, England, Italy and Sicily at the
height of the Industrial Revolution and after the Peace of Utrecht. The second section [3.2]: The
philosophical context: the English Enlightenment and the thought of Knight, traces the general lines
of the European, English and Italian Enlightenment that influenced Knight before, during and after
his trip to Sicily. The third section [3.3]: The artistic context: the rediscovery of classics between
lights and shadows, provides an outline of the cultural and artistic contexts of the second half of the
Eighteenth Century, focusing in particular on the authors who developed theories to define concepts
like Beauty, Picturesque and Sublime. The fourth section [3.4]: The problem of time in the
Eighteenth Century, focuses on the scientific debate on the significance and the age of fossils,
which is linked, in turn, to the age of the Earth. This was the main scientific debate of the
Eighteenth Century and it influenced Knight’s ideas on time, history and geology. The fifth section
[3.5]: The Grand Tour in the second half of the of the Eighteenth Century, presents an overview of
the logistical conditions of travel in Italy and the motivations of the Grand Tourists. The fourth
chapter: The analysis of the text and of Knight’s thought, is divided into two sections. The first
section [4.1]: Text Analysis, briefly reviews the stages of Knight's journey, discusses the scenes of
the Expedition referring to the literary picturesque and to the social characteristics of Sicilians and,
finally, draws the final conclusions of the trip. The second section [4.2]: The stereotypes about
Italy, discusses Knight’s position on some clichés that the travelers of his time had on Italians and,
in particular, on Sicilians.
Finally, aspects not strictly relevant to the topic of this work, which I have treated
elsewhere, have met the interest and appreciation of the international scientific community. This is,
in particular, the study presented at the conference in Valletta Encountering Malta: British Writers
and the Mediterranean 1760-1840 (November 2011), in which I have proposed an original
interpretation of Knight's historical thought, connecting it with that of the English historian Edward
Gibbon's. The work has been accepted for publication by the journal The Wordsworth Circle.
Additional information
Dottorato di ricerca in Storia e cultura del viaggio e dell'odeporica in età moderna
Subjects
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