Dupaty et l’Italie des voyageurs sensibles by Jan Herman, Kris Peeters et Paul Pelckmans (review)

Papers from the 2011 international conference of the same name are presented in this excellent collection on the importance and influence of Charles Mercier Dupaty’s Lettres sur l’Italie, en 1785, published by de Senne in Rome in 1788. Several contributors cite the words of Dupaty’s publisher in the ‘Avertissement au lecteur’: ‘Ceci n’est pas un voyage d’Italie, mais un voyage en Italie’ (pp. 12, 125, 261; editors’ emphasis). It is this central premise that underlines the sensibilité of both Dupaty and those who were inspired by his work not simply to garner facts and descriptions during the Italian tour, but rather to explore their own feelings when they came face to face with Italy’s natural wonders, artistic heritage, and ruins. Covering politics, the history of the Italian Grand Tour, art, architecture, and the literature of authors such as Chateaubriand and Germaine de Staël, this diverse collection highlights the feelings stirred up in those who travelled through Italy after reading Dupaty’s letters. The presence of a mémoire livresque bespeaks an inter-textuality that is a key component in each of the essays in this collection. The initial contributions focus on the tradition that Dupaty inaugurates by his travelling in the footsteps of others but seeking an emotional motivation that will benefit his efforts to effect change at home. For example, Laurence Macé argues that Dupaty sought the ‘sensibility’ of the Italian penal code, and Mladen Cozul shows that Dupaty’s voyage was a quest for ideas about class and crime laws. The next four essays examine the influence that a prior knowledge of Italy, through the reading of travel journals and letters, or through depictions in famous paintings, had on travellers. As Catriona Seth explains: ‘Les attentes de tels voyageurs sont fondées d’abord sur une culture classique—ils sont lecteurs de Virgile ou d’Horace —, ensuite sur une connaissance de toiles représentant une partie du site, en troisième lieu sur des guides voyage’ (p. 104). The next ten essays, and thus the bulk of the compilation, are centred on late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century literary and artistic personages who, inspired to varying degrees by the Grand Tour in general and Dupaty in particular, undertook their own Italian tours and incorporated their experiences into their works. These essays examine the works both of well-known authors like Sade, Staël, and Chateaubriand, and of lesser-known ones like la Princesse de Gonzague, André Jacopssen, and Mme de Krüdener. In his concluding remarks about this compilation, Jan Herman writes of the fleeting influence of Dupaty, who is considered démodé by 1821 and yet whose marriage of places and emotions paved the way for the greats of French romanticism. This well-organized collection gives not only an effective overview of Dupaty’s Lettres, but makes the compelling case for his significance among the literary geniuses who would, quite literally, follow in Dupaty’s footsteps. The essays will be of interest to scholars of romanticism, philosophy, and political science, but, most importantly, the volume provides a much-needed analysis of the role of the Grand Tour of Italy in the French imagination.