Daily Life in Eighteenth Century Italy

Daily Life Series #8

by Maurice Vaussard, Heron (Translator)

Index, bibliography, notes, illustrations, photos.

218 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1962

About the author

Maurice Vaussard was a 20th-century French writer and essayist. Author of numerous historical and political essays, a specialist in Italian history and the Christian Democrats, Maurice Vaussard was editor at the Revue universelle and at Le Monde from 1945 to 1972.

Reviews

[Jj · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author presents a collection of accounts from various travelers (some, delightfully snotty) visiting several cities/regions in Italy during the 1700's. I enjoyed the first two chapters about town and country life, but felt less enthusiastic about the seemingly endless section on costume. Not being a fashion historian, this was a bit hard to follow even with the help of Google due to lack of visual reference material. That said, I did find the information on Sumptuary Laws rather interesting.

The complaints about the treatment of foreigners traveling about Italy at the time typify the general tone of most all of the commentary: "I have sometimes been at a conversazione of the Procuratress Foscarini's, a house of enormous wealth; as the only tidbit, at 3 PM, i.e. about eleven o'clock in France, twenty valets bring in, on an immense silver platter, a large sliced pumpkin known as anfouri or water-melon, a detestable dish if ever there was one... I'll be damned if I have yet seen anyone offered a glass of water".

[Andrea Càrpino · Rating 3 out of 5]

L'opera, secondo me invecchiata male, è carente dal punto di vista antropologico, ma resta una miniera di informazioni succose, sebbene a volte un po' troppo particolari e a volte un po' troppo generali. I giudizi sono spesso superficiali, o discutibili, e la bibliografia è insufficiente; in ogni caso la lettura è piacevole. La consiglio, ma con sguardo critico.