Questions of Authority: Italo-Australian Travel Narratives of the Long

COPYRIGHT AND USE OF THIS THESIS This thesis must be used in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. Reproduction of material protected by copyright may be an infringement of copyright and copyright owners may be entitled to take legal action against persons who infringe their copyright. Section 51 (2) of the Copyright Act permits an authorized officer of a university library or archives to provide a copy (by communication or otherwise) of an unpublished thesis kept in the library or archives, to a person who satisfies the authorized officer that he or she requires the reproduction for the purposes of research or study. The Copyright Act grants the creator of a work a number of moral rights, specifically the right of attribution, the right against false attribution and the right of integrity. You may infringe the author’s moral rights if you: - fail to acknowledge the author of this thesis if you quote sections from the work - attribute this thesis to another author - subject this thesis to derogatory treatment which may prejudice the author’s reputation For further information contact the University’s Director of Copyright Services sydney.edu.au/copyright Questions of Authority: Italo-Australian Travel Narratives of the Long Nineteenth Century Laura Olcelli A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of English University of Sydney 2014 ABSTRACT This thesis investigates Italo-Australian literary travel exchanges throughout the long nineteenth century. The 1800s witnessed major transformations in Australian overseas travel: it gradually evolved from a replica of the Continental Grand Tour of the British, whose goals were the cities of Rome, Florence and Venice, to a more idiosyncratic cosmopolitan experience, either touristic or professional. Moreover, it was during the second half of this century that both Italy and Australia underwent crucial political upheavals; these resulted in shifts from colonial and subjugated status, to self-government and ultimately independence. This thesis connects the geographical, political and socio-cultural contexts of Italy and Australia by considering their interlaced odeporic library, produced at a significant time in history. It looks at key texts compiled by Italians in Australia, and Australians in Italy: these chiefly consist of voyage accounts, but also include the records of explorers, missionaries, scientists and migrants coming from the Italian peninsula. About one third of the primary sources are unpublished travel diaries compiled by the first Victorian women visitors to the Bel Paese, which have been largely neglected by scholarship thus far. This examination pinpoints the enduring significance of Italy in travel-related terms, showing how this destination was adapted from the map of eighteenth- century British Grand Tourists, to that of nineteenth-century Australian holiday makers. Most critically, it suggests that Italo-Australian peripatetic connections entail issues of authority, that emerge in the ways in which Italian and Australian travel writers displayed their authorship, cultural capital and national identification in relation to ‘the other country.’ Finally, it demonstrates how these are highly regulated by, and yet simultaneously challenge, British colonial hegemony. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In 2009 I had the fortune to cross paths with Professor Vanessa Smith, a supervisor so extraordinary who completely revolutionized my previous concept of supervisor. This thesis would not have crystalized without her, and my indebtedness to her goes much beyond the present and formal circumstances of this thesis. Many thanks also to my associate supervisor from the Department of History, Associate Professor Kirsten McKenzie, who offered ready availability when my project became more interdisciplinary than initially anticipated. The University of Sydney International Scholarship, as well as a number of grants awarded by the University of Sydney and by the 2012 Society for the History of Discoveries conference committee have been indispensable to my research. I would also like to express my gratitude to a number of scholars who shared their knowledge at various stages: David Armitage, Mark Byron, Anita Callaway, Joyce Chaplin, Bruce Gardiner, Elena Govor, Doina Pasca Harsaniy, Maurizio Isabella, Dario Manfredi, Cindy McCreedy, Desmond O’Grady, Luisa Pèrcopo, Juan Pimentel and Pei-Shan Yu. I am similarly obliged to the librarians of the Mitchell Library, the State Library of Victoria, the Rare Books and Special Collections Library of Sydney University, the Biblioteca Universitaria di Pavia and the Library of the Sydney Royal Botanical Gardens & Domain Trust, from where I obtained precious primary and secondary sources; to Mike Cuttle from the Ballarat Historical Society; and all my postgraduate colleagues who gave me disinterested advice. Last but not least, my thanks go to my family, who throughout these years have been a constant source of inspiration and patience. Major references, especially for the first part of the thesis, are from Italian critical texts, which I have collected during a research trip in iii Italy in February 2012. Two articles from the Malaspina section have been published in Sydney Journal 4, no. 1 (2013): 38–48 and in Terrae Incognitae 45, no. 2 (October 2013): 90–98. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ii Acknowledgments iii Table of Contents v List of Illustrations vii INTRODUCTION 1 PART ONE: ITALIANS IN AUSTRALIA CHAPTER 1: Exploration and Religion I. James Mario Matra, “one of those gentlemen … that can very well be spared” 36 II. Alessandro Malaspina at the Service of “the nation that has taken me as one of its own!” 60 III. Rosendo Salvado and the Benedictine Mission of New Norcia: “a victory obtained without bloodshed or noise of arms” 91 CHAPTER 2: Early Migration and Science IV. Raffaello Carboni’s “truth, and nothing but the truth” 115 V. ‘Unauthorized’ Italo-Australian Naturalistic Travels 136 VI. “bible, lead and rum”: Pietro Munari’s Ambivalent Authority 151 v PART TWO: AUSTRALIANS IN ITALY CHAPTER 3: From Travel to Tourism VII. Grace Leadbetter: “our feelings on first leaving home notwithstanding we were bound on a tour of pleasure” 171 VIII. James Smith’s travel notes: “a sort of handbook” 190 IX. Sophia L. Jennings: “flitting from our dear old home” 199 CHAPTER 4: Touristic and Artistic Journeys X. Violet Ida Chomley: “not the ‘Grand Tour’ but the ‘Downward Path’” 210 XI. Nathan Spielvogel: “what interests me most is wandering” 233 XII. Louie B. Riggall’s Capri: “a bit of the street from our window” 248 CONCLUSION 272 Appendix A: First Record of Plants Sent from Sydney to Florence (Transcription) 276 Appendix B: Italian Leg of Grace Leadbetter’s Travel Diary (Transcription) 279 Bibliography 356 vi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 1. List of 32 native plants sent to the Botanic Gardens of Florence on 7 March 1867 146 2. Violet Ida Chomley in 1902, before departing for her voyage 212 3. Chomley’s letter book 215 4 and 5. Chomley’s personal receipts collected during her Italian sojourn 223 6. Cover note in Louie B. Riggall’s travel diary 251 7. Postcards from Rome in Riggall’s diary 255 8. Back of the cover page of Riggall’s diary 257 9. Postcards from Florence in Riggall’s diary 263 10. Postcard from Venice in Riggall’s diary 270 vii INTRODUCTION “If ever you find yourselves set in positions of authority.” John Ruskin, The Eagle’s Nest This thesis looks at the earliest Italo-Australian relations in travel literature. Thus far scholarship has generally focused on Italians—and especially Italian migrants—to Australia, but less has been written regarding Australian visits to the nineteenth-century Italian peninsula.1 Not only do I seek to enrich the thinner secondary literature on early Australian travel writing about Italy, but, by including both perspectives, I aim to identify the relative degrees of authority with which Italians and Australians felt able to represent both the other country and themselves as travellers. Both Italy and Australia were simultaneously ‘young’ and ‘old’ nations during the period this thesis considers. Their travel exchanges provoke a range of questions about the authority of the writing subjects, their cultural capital, and their colonial and national identity. This thesis will attempt to explore these questions through a close reading of key travel accounts, some never before analysed or transcribed. Italy, 1748–1870 For much of the period under examination here, Italy was not a unified country; my use of the word ‘Italy,’ which I adopt for convenience, is pre-emptive, and enables the discussion of the country’s situation at this point in history. Following the War of the Austrian Succession, in 1 A number of Australian scholars have touched on the travels of certain Australians in Italy. However, most Italian scholars have limited their investigations to the Italian presence in Australia. 1 1748, and for a little more than a century, the area that largely corresponds to contemporary Italy was fractioned into many states, and the great majority of the territory was under foreign domination. In the north-west there was the Kingdom of Sardinia, with Turin as its capital, governed by the House of Savoy, and beneath it, the Republic of Genoa (‘La Superba’), which also included the island of Corsica from 1284 until 1768, the year when it became a French possession.2 The centre-north included small duchies: from the time of the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), the Duchy of Milan had been ruled by the Hapsburgs of Austria; the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza had passed, according to the recent Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748), from the Farnese to the Bourbon dynasty; the Duchy of Modena was controlled by the Este family, and so was the Duchy of Massa and Carrara. The north-east comprised the Bishopric of Trent, which only had a formal autonomy from Austria, and the Republic of Venice (‘La Serenissima’).

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