COMPLETE: Glimpses of Italian society in the eighteenth century by Hester Lynch Piozzi -jo

Solo or group recordings that are finished and fully available for listeners
barbara2
Posts: 2919
Joined: June 24th, 2012, 10:28 pm
Location: Queensland, Australia

Post by barbara2 »

Section 8, Florence, Pt 1:

https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/italiansociety_08_piozzi_128.mp3
M:S
26:28


This Grand Duke was a very Enlightened Despot indeed, according to Wikipedia. You’d be interested to hear (maybe you knew?) that he was all for having his subjects vaccinated. Reformed everything in sight. But lacked the charisma of the corrupt Medicis.

Best,

Barbara
pnagami
Posts: 9031
Joined: July 15th, 2015, 6:42 am
Location: California, USA

Post by pnagami »

Hi Barbara,

Section 8 is PL OK. Very entertaining!

That would be Leopold II (Peter Leopold), the son of Maria Theresa, Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1765-1790, and briefly emperor (after his brother Joseph II died) from 1790-1792. He was dour but enlightened, according to Wikipedia.

My best,

Pam
"Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm."

Robert Louis Stevenson
barbara2
Posts: 2919
Joined: June 24th, 2012, 10:28 pm
Location: Queensland, Australia

Post by barbara2 »

Florence, Pt 2


https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/italiansociety_09_piozzi_128.mp3
M:S
20:09

You will meet a famous improvisatorice called Corilla in this Section. I download the book as Plain Text so I can annotate it and, in the Plain Text version, she is Gorilla.

The Grand Duke, I find, has the dazzling distinction of being an ancestor of Nikolaus Harnoncourt (through one of his Archducal sons, who, exiled to the provinces by Metternich, married a Styrian postmaster's lovely daughter).

Best,

Barbara
pnagami
Posts: 9031
Joined: July 15th, 2015, 6:42 am
Location: California, USA

Post by pnagami »

Hi Barbara,

Section 9 is PL OK.

Delightful, as usual!

Pam
"Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm."

Robert Louis Stevenson
barbara2
Posts: 2919
Joined: June 24th, 2012, 10:28 pm
Location: Queensland, Australia

Post by barbara2 »

Hi Pam - Section 10, Lucca and Pisa.

https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/italiansociety_10_piozzi_128.mp3
M:S
20:00

Unusually, I recorded this early in the day. Talk about the squeaky-voiced Lucchesi!

Best,

Barbara
pnagami
Posts: 9031
Joined: July 15th, 2015, 6:42 am
Location: California, USA

Post by pnagami »

Hi Barbara,

Section 10 is PL OK.

You sound fine!

Pam
"Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm."

Robert Louis Stevenson
barbara2
Posts: 2919
Joined: June 24th, 2012, 10:28 pm
Location: Queensland, Australia

Post by barbara2 »

Section 11 - Leghorn, Bagni di Pisa and Siena.


https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/italiansociety_11_piozzi_128.mp3
M:S
24:12


Next stop Rome!

Best,

Barbara
pnagami
Posts: 9031
Joined: July 15th, 2015, 6:42 am
Location: California, USA

Post by pnagami »

Hi Barbara,

Section 11 is PL OK.

Such a good writer!

Pam
"Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm."

Robert Louis Stevenson
barbara2
Posts: 2919
Joined: June 24th, 2012, 10:28 pm
Location: Queensland, Australia

Post by barbara2 »

And now, Rome.

Section 12
https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/italiansociety_12_piozzi_128.mp3
M:S
14:06

There seems to be wordplay on the name of Hester's daughter Queeney but I couldn't make sense of it - perhaps it included a misprint?

Best,

Barbara
pnagami
Posts: 9031
Joined: July 15th, 2015, 6:42 am
Location: California, USA

Post by pnagami »

Hi Barbara,

Very interesting, as usual. I don't know about the pun, though.

My best,

Pam
"Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm."

Robert Louis Stevenson
barbara2
Posts: 2919
Joined: June 24th, 2012, 10:28 pm
Location: Queensland, Australia

Post by barbara2 »

pnagami
Posts: 9031
Joined: July 15th, 2015, 6:42 am
Location: California, USA

Post by pnagami »

Hi Barbara,

Wonderful! PL OK.

I can't remember having seen either of the first two, though I must have seen the first if it was on display at the Huntington. They are wonderful paintings.

On page 218 we have a perfect enunciation of the Burkean sublime as elaborated in his 1757 "A Philosophical Inquiry into our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful." As you know, it's not just the Addisonian sublime--awe at majestic scenery.

It's “Whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain, and danger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime; that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling.”

And it's especially enjoyable to feel this emotion from a safe distance, as Hester says. Close, but not too close.

Thanks,

Pam
"Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm."

Robert Louis Stevenson
barbara2
Posts: 2919
Joined: June 24th, 2012, 10:28 pm
Location: Queensland, Australia

Post by barbara2 »

Section 14 - Naples Part 2


https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/italiansociety_14_piozzi_128.mp3
M:S
23:00

Hester must have had a lot of contacts in Italy.

Best,

Barbara
pnagami
Posts: 9031
Joined: July 15th, 2015, 6:42 am
Location: California, USA

Post by pnagami »

Yes, definitely. Maybe through her husband.

PL OK.

My best,

Pam
"Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm."

Robert Louis Stevenson
barbara2
Posts: 2919
Joined: June 24th, 2012, 10:28 pm
Location: Queensland, Australia

Post by barbara2 »

Pam, Section 15, Naples part 3:


https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/italiansociety_15_piozzi_128.mp3
M:S
20:00

Goethe was in Italy in for 2 years from 1786. His “Italian Journey" is currently being recorded in German for Librivox. I just discovered that W. H. Auden and Elizabeth Mayer translated it (a must read!). “Naples is a paradise" wrote Goethe "in it every one lives in a sort of intoxicated self-forgetfulness. It is even so with me: I scarcely know myself; I seem to myself quite an altered man. Yesterday I said to myself, ‘Either you have always been mad, or you are so now.’ ’’

Best,

Barbara
Post Reply