Topographic Memory and Victorian Travellers in the Dolomite Mountains
Title
Topographic Memory and Victorian Travellers in the Dolomite Mountains
Subtitle
Peaks of Venice
Price
€ 135,99
ISBN
9789048539314
Format
eBook PDF (Adobe DRM)
Number of pages
310
Language
English
Publication date
Dimensions
15.6 x 23.4 cm
Also available as
Hardback - € 136,00
Table of Contents
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Introduction: Tools for Unravelling Heritage
Part One: Matrices of Topographic Memory
1. The Alps and the Grand Tour
2. The Laboratory of the Picturesque
3. The Golden Age of Mountaineering
Part Two: The Invention of the Dolomites
4. The Silver Age of Mountaineering
5. Titian Country
6. Picturesque Mountains
7. Dolomite Close-Ups
8. King Laurin's Garden
Epilogue: Messner Country
Bibliography
Index

Reviews and Features

''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

William Bainbridge

Topographic Memory and Victorian Travellers in the Dolomite Mountains

Peaks of Venice

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.
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Author

William Bainbridge

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.