Topographic Memory and Victorian Travellers in the Dolomite Mountains: Peaks of Venice

William Bainbridge

Published by Amsterdam University Press 2020

Topographic Memory and Victorian Travellers in the Dolomite Mountains

Peaks of Venice

William Bainbridge

In the series Landscape and Heritage Studies

https://doi.org/10.1515/9789048539314

Overview
Contents

About this book

Guided by the romantic compass of Turner, Byron, and Ruskin, Victorian travellers to the Dolomites sketched in the mountainous backdrop of Venice a cultural ‘Petit Tour’ of global significance. As they zigzagged across a debatable land between Italy and Austria, Victorians discovered a unique geography characterized by untrodden peaks and unfrequented valleys. The discovery of this landscape blended aesthetic, scientific, and cultural values utterly different from those engendered by the bombastic conquests of the Western Alps achieved during the ‘Golden Age of Mountaineering’. Filtered through memories of the Venetian Grand Tour, the Victorian encounter with the Dolomites is revealed through a series of distinct cultural practices that paradigmatically define a ‘Silver Age of Mountaineering’. This book shows how these practices are more ethnographic than imperialistic, more feminine than masculine, more artistic than sportive — rather than racing to summits, the Silver Age is about rambling, rather than conquering peaks, it is about sketching them in an intimate interaction with the Dolomite landscape.

Author / Editor information

Bainbridge William :

William Bainbridge is a Lecturer in History at the University of Hertfordshire. He received his PhD in Historical Geography from the University of Durham, and has been a fellow at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and at the University of Edinburgh’s Institute of Advanced Studies in the Humanities. He acts as a consultant on heritage matters internationally, including for UNESCO and ICOMOS.

Reviews

''In its discussion of the representation of a specific and previously sparsely considered region, Topographic Memory and Victorian Travellers in the Dolomite Mountains collates a broad range of contextual material and an overview of key debates influencing the understanding of the region by British audiences.''
-Kathryn Walchester, Victorian Studies , Vol. 65, N. 1, Autumn 2022

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	1
Table of Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	5
Introduction: Tools for Unravelling Heritage Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	9
Part One. Matrices of Topographic Memory
1 The Alps and the Grand Tour Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	27
2 The Laboratory of the Picturesque Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	51
3 The Golden Age of Mountaineering Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	77
Part Two. The Invention of the Dolomites
4 The Silver Age of Mountaineering Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
5 Titian Country Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	135
6 Picturesque Mountains Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	163
7 Dolomite Close-Ups Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	187
8 King Laurin’s Garden Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	207
Epilogue: Messner Country Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	237
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	255
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	305

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 310
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 37
Keywords: Landscape; heritage; Dolomites; nineteenth century; landscape art; travel writing; Alps.

eBook

Published: July 28, 2020
ISBN: 9789048539314