Suchergebnisse

The book discusses the experience of two Florentine travellers in the Levant from the 1760s to 1792. During their separate stays in Cyprus and in Istanbul they visited the Holy Land, Anatolia and Mesopotamia providing extensive reports on natural history, institutions, local customs and languages as well as data on the economy and the health conditions of the area. Their numerous printed works enjoyed remarkable success and were translated into French and other languages. The inquiry places the authors firmly within the European 'Republic of letters' and testifies to the growing interest for Islam and Ottoman power during the Enlightenment debate on the eve of the French Revolution.

L'Essai sur la Monarchie autrichienne en son état actuel en 1790 offers a complete and unprecedented overview of the conditions of the Hapsburg monarchy on an international levell at the beginning of the French Revolution. This essay is addressed at a non-specialist reader, likely identified with future emperor Francis II's betrothed. It examines the institutional, economic, military and religious context of the monarchy, establishes its historical and political legitimacy and suggests a disenchanted evaluation of the emperor Joseph II's work shortly after his death. On the whole, it represents an exceptional testimony to the processes taking place in the heart of Europe in an era of dramatic changes.

The book collects the interventions at the seminar "Images of Italy and Europe in literature and travel documentation in the 18th and 19th centuries", held at the Department of Historical and Geographical Studies of the University of Florence in 1999-2001. It addresses the problem of the creation of borders (political, administrative, linguistic, religious) in Europe and in Brazil from the Middle Ages to the beginning of the 20th century, with particular regard to the period between the 17th and 18th centuries. The theme of the constitution of borders is a classic of the relationship between history and geography and involves the entire range of human sciences, enabling the comparison with international research results.