Individuelle und kollektive Reiseerfahrung: Sulpiz Boisserée in Italien

Abstract

The art historian and collector Sulpiz Boisserée gives in his diaries a detailed report on the years he spent in Italy. Through his daily notes, ordinary events are juxtaposed with the remarks on landscape, painting and architecture. In a fragmented, yet constant and continuous way, the writing records the encounters with the German community living and travelling in Italy, a network of social relationships through which the traveller’s ego is forming his identity. In the pragmatic horizon of communication, the exchange of ideas and interests gradually builds up the image of a historical and medieval Italy together with the myth of its classicism.