Earliest view of the (newly walled) Old English Cemetery of Livorno Thursday, Feb 2 2023 

Analysis and Cemeteries and Genealogy and General History and Medias and Old English and Places and Sources , , , , , , Matteo Giunti 10:59 am

While exploring the collections of the British Museum for items related to Livorno I stumbled upon a series of drawings by Alexander Cozens from 1746 depicting the port and fortifications of Livorno from the extraordinary viewpoint of the lighthouse. In particular I searched for the South view, hoping to see some detail of the Old English Cemetery, and there it was, even though the official description of the image doesn’t mention this fundamental “detail”:

“Drawing from an album, view of the fortifications to the south of Porto Mediceo in Leghorn (Livorno) seen from the lighthouse; left, fortezza di Porta Murata, the separating Fosso Reale and to the right the lazaretto of San Rocco; plain with scattered houses and mountains beyond. Pen and black ink, with watercolour“

(more…)

 

New Section: Livorno/Leghorn in Quotes Thursday, Nov 1 2012 

Books and General History and Lists and Places and Sources and Update , , , , , Matteo Giunti 1:30 am

As already done for the Old English Cemetery, I created a new page with a collection of quotes from travellers’ accounts regarding the city of Livorno (or Leghorn). The new section will be evolving with time, as new quotes are found from the travel journals of the 17th-19th centuries. The page is accessible from the main blog page, or by clicking the next link:

-> Leghorn/Livorno in Quotes <-

 

Shame! The “English Cemetery” of Pisa. Sunday, Sep 2 2012 

Cemeteries and General History and Medias and Places , , , , , , , , , Matteo Giunti 7:17 pm

If you happen to visit the city of Pisa by bus, chances are that your bus parks at the large bus parking area on Via Pietrasantina, a few hundred yards away from the world heritage site of Piazza dei Miracoli, where thousands of tourists visit the leaning tower everyday.
In this case, unfortunately, you might also happen to walk down Via Pietrasantina to reach the famous square, risking at the same time your life and (more…)

 

New Blog Section: The Old English Cemetery of Livorno in Images Thursday, Aug 23 2012 

Cemeteries and Medias and Old English and Places , , , , , , , , , , , Matteo Giunti 5:40 pm

A whole new section has just been added to the blog’s page about the Old English Cemetery of Livorno:

 ♦ The Old English Cemetery in Images ♦

The new page consists, for now, of a few sub-sections rich of images related to the cemetery:

I plan to add more pictures and themed-sections in the next future. Enjoy!

 

Reminiscences of Mary Thompson, daughter of the British Vice-Consul in Livorno Wednesday, Feb 29 2012 

Articles and Biography and Cemeteries and Genealogy and General History and New English and Places and Sources , , , , , , , , Matteo Giunti 8:22 am

by Piero Posarelli, edited by Matteo Giunti.

On the Internet site www.bristowefamilies.com, we can read the passage Reminiscences of my young days, written by Mary Thompson, daughter of Frederick Thompson who was British Vice-Consul in Livorno from 1839 to 1852. The first part of the Reminiscences speaks about Mary’s memories of that period, when Livorno was full of revolutionary ideas that brought to the battle of Porta San Marco in 1849. On the site we can also find information about her father and her family.

There is little known about the first years of Frederick Thompson’s life. We know that  he was born about 1805 in Maldon, Essex, England, and that for some unknown reasons he went to Malta where he opened a school. In Malta he met and married Mary Ann [Mary Ann Bingham born 1810, NdR], who was born there from English parents [William Bingham and Eleanor Temple, NdR], and had two children: Fred (born in 1833) and Mary (born in 1835). It is from the information that Mary left us in the form of reminiscences written in her later life in Charlcombe, Somerset, England that it is possible to piece together some of the events surrounding the life of this family. (more…)

 

The Old English Cemetery in Quotes: a new page. Friday, Feb 24 2012 

Articles and Books and Cemeteries and Lists and Old English and Places and Sources and Update , , , , , , Matteo Giunti 3:06 am

For a long time I have been collecting brief excerpts or longer citations regarding the Old English Cemetery of Livorno. Many of these have the power of giving us a glance of what it was like in the past by describing in colourful detail its vegetation, or the railings and low wall enclosing it, or the magic and melancholy atmosphere that could be felt while wandering there, or some of the white marble monuments of all shapes, with their inscriptions in many different languages…  These passages were written by people visiting it during a day off at Livorno’s harbour waiting to sail to some other places. Others came just to see the famous tombs of Smollett and Horner, or to look for the grave of an acquaintance or of some other person they particularly respected… Some of them fell in love with it and would even dream of dying in the surroundings so they could be buried in such a wonderful garden, while some others compared it to other cemeteries, or noted its uniqueness in Italy or its age. Certain writers depicted Livorno as the Italian ‘Babel’; it was populated with merchants of all tongues, mariners and pirates, noblemen and their courts passing through on their way back to Florence, and consumptive gentlemen hoping the sea breeze would make their health better.

Here’s one of these excerpts:

Piero Sraffa, M. H. Dobb, The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, 10, 1955, 321-322.

Letter, Thursday 24 Oct.r Pisa [1822]

(…) We also saw the English Burying Ground in which we were very much (more…)

 

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