La letteratura artistica siciliana nei diari dei viaggiatori francesi tra XVIII e XIX secolo

The publication of the travel diaries of Johann Hermann von Riedesel in 1771 and Patrick Brydone in 1773 determined the inclusion of Sicily among the canonical stations of the Grand Tour itinerary. Among the foreigners who arrived in large numbers on the island between the end of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century and published accounts of their journeys, French authors stood out, referring to an idea of Europe as a common space that had gradually established itself from the end of the 16th century until the 18th. Thanks to these authors, the assimilation of the Sicilian cultural reality, and of the artistic one in particular, not only took the form of visiting places and directly observing works and monuments, but also of consulting Sicilian authors who, for various reasons, had dealt in their works with local artists and their production.