Dopo la Via della Seta e prima delle Nuove Vie della Seta. Il viaggio in Cina di Carla Novellis di Coarazze (1906-1907)

Abstract

The paper analyzes geo-historical, topographical and perceptive issues of the travel diary by Carla Novellis di Coarazze (1865-?), née Dreyfus, of Hungarian origin, in China from November 1906 to January 1907 together with her husband, Italian Baron Carlo Maria Novellis di Coarazze (1855-1916), commander on board of the cruiser Marco Polo of the Italian Royal Navy. This travelogue, still unpublished, is now conserved in the Italian National Diary Archive, based in Pieve Santo Stefano (Province of Arezzo). In the framework of her Chinese stay, Carla Novellis describes mostly the quasi-colonial environment of the ‘Old Shanghai’ at the beginning of the 20th century, but also Suzhou and Guangzhou. The paper georeferences and discusses places of the above mentioned cities, quoted by Novellis in her diary.

Keywords

• carla novellis di coarazze
• china
• cultural geography
• travelogues
• cina
• geografia culturale
• racconti di viaggio