Guides: Alumni Travel Reading 2018-2019: Southern Italy & Sicily

Bibliographer

Selected and Annotated by
Joseph Holub
Latin American Studies, Spanish & Portuguese Language & Literature Librarian
holub @ pobox.upenn.edu

Revised by
Penn Dental Library
kleclair @ pobox.upenn.edu

Art of Southern Italy

The Medieval Salento: Art and Identity in Southern Italy by Linda Safran
Call Number: P93.5 .S235 2014
ISBN: 9780812245547
Publication Date: 2014
Explores paintings, carved tombstones, inscriptions, graffiti, and more, pulling together the visual and material culture of Southern Italy. Shows how ethnic and religious identities can stay distinct, despite mingling to become a regional group.
Magna Graecia by Michael Bennet; Michael Bennett; Aaron J. Paul
Call Number: N5753 .B46 2002
ISBN: 0940717719
Publication Date: 2002
Presents masterpieces of Greek vase painting and sculpture from Southern Italy found in South Italian museums. Includes commentaries and colorplates for each object.

Sorrento

Sorrento. Image by Harvey Barrison. Obtained on flickr with a Creative Commons license.

Sicilian Food & Culture

Bitter Almonds: Recollections & Recipes from a Sicilian Girlhood by Maria Grammatico
Call Number: Van Pelt Library TX773 .G673 1994
ISBN: 9780553814651
Publication Date: 2003
A Remarkable memoir, a tribute to Sicilian food and culture, and the record of an historic and vanishing craft. At the heart of the book are forty-six recipes of unique Sicilian specialities, written down for the first time. From the publisher.
The Bears' Famous Invasion of Sicily by Dino Buzzati
Call Number: PZ8.B965 Be 2003
ISBN: 9781590170762
Publication Date: 2003
A group of bears living on a mountain in Sicily suddenly find themselves facing starvation when a terrible winter leaves them without food. The bears are forced to descend the mountain and enter into the city where the bear king's son, Tony, has been kept captive for many years. However, once they approach the city, things do not turn out as they had imagined, and the bear king, Leander, is left to save his community from the enticing grasps of human civilization. An Italian childrens' allegory, that raises the questions surrounding humanity.

Southern Italy & Sicily

Taormina, Sicilia. Image by Jeanne Menjoulet. Obtained on flickr with a Creative Commons license.

By the Ionian Sea

In By the Ionian Sea, George Gissing shares his visit to the Italian coast south of Naples. Viewable courtesy of Hathi Trust and the University of California.

History

Sicily : a short history, from the Greeks to Cosa Nostra by John Julius Norwich
Call Number: Van Pelt Library DG866 .N67 2015
ISBN: 9781848548954
Publication Date: 2015
Definitive cultural history of Sicily from Greek rule to modern times. Norwich also brings to light Sicily's unique contribution to the history of the Mediterranean, serving as a bridge between the east and the west.
Seeking Sicily: A Cultural Journey through Myth and Reality in the Heart of the Mediterranean by John Keahey
Call Number: Van Pelt Library DG864.3 .K43 2011
ISBN: 9780312597054
Publication Date: 2011
Seeking Sicily explores what lies behind the soul of the island's inhabitants. It touches on history, archaeology, food, the Mafia, and politics and looks to nineteenth- and twentieth-century Sicilian authors to plumb the islanders' so-called Sicilitudine.
Naples and Napoleon: Southern Italy and the European Revolutions (1780-1860) by John A. Davis
Call Number: Van Pelt Library DG848.4 .D38 2006
ISBN: 9780198207559
Publication Date: 2006
A look at the Napoleonic rule of Southern Italy during the age of European revolutions. Examines ambitious reform projects and reshapes the understanding of how Italian states became unified.
Impressions of Southern Italy; British Travel Writing from Henry Swinburne to Norman Douglas by Sharon Ouditt
Call Number: Van Pelt Library PR756.T72 O98 2014
ISBN: 0415715091
Publication Date: 2013
This book studies the British travellers who visited Italy's Southern territories. Spanning the late eighteenth century to the mid-twentieth century, the author considers what these travellers discovered, not in the form of a survey, but as a series of unfolding impressions disclosing multiple Southern Italies. From the publisher.

Matera

Matera. Image by Francesca Cappa. Obtained on flickr with Creative Commons license.

Ancient Greeks in Sicily

Le théâatre de Taormine. Image by CpaKmol. Obtained on flickr with a Creative Commons license.

Archaic and Classical Greek Sicily: A Social and Economic History by Franco De Angelis
Call Number: Van Pelt Library DG55.S5 D38 2016
ISBN: 9780195170474
Publication Date: 2016
Using historical and archaeological evidence, this book looks at the evolution of Sicilian Greek societies and economies. In addition, it explains the similarities and differences between Greek Sicily and mainland Greece.
Theater Outside Athens: Drama in Greek Sicily and South Italy by Kathryn Bosher (Editor)
Call Number: Van Pelt Library PA3202 .T44 2012
ISBN: 0521761786
Publication Date: 2012
This volume brings together archeologists, art historians, philologists, literary scholars, political scientists and historians to articulate the ways in which western Greek theater was distinct from that of the Greek mainland and, at the same time, to investigate how the two traditions interacted. From the publisher.
Sicily: Art and Invention between Greece and Rome by Claire L. Lyons, Michael Bennett and Clemente Marconi, editors
Call Number: Van Pelt Library DG55.S5 S535 2013
ISBN: 9781606061336
Publication Date: 2013
In the late 8th Century B.C., émigrés from the Greek mainland founded colonies along the shores of the region now known as Sicily. This book highlights the artists, poets, and scientists who attained levels of ingenuity rivaling those of their ancestral home.

Life and Death in Herculaneum

The Legacy of Vesuvius

Watching Vesuvius: A History of Science and Culture in Early Modern Italy by Sean Cocco
Call Number: Van Pelt Library QE523.V5 C63 2012
ISBN: 0226923711
Publication Date: 2012
Mount Vesuvius has been famous ever since its eruption in 79 CE, when it destroyed and buried the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. But less well-known is the role it played in the science and culture of early modern Italy, as Sean Cocco reveals in this wide-ranging study. From the publisher.
Pompeii's Ashes: The Reception of the Cities Buried by Vesuvius in Literature, Music, and Drama by Eric Moormann
Call Number: Van Pelt Library PN56.3.P66 M66 2015
ISBN: 9781614518853
Publication Date: 2015
Pompeii's Ashes discusses the excavation history of Pompeii and Herculaneum, and their depiction in historical novels, contemporary and time traveling adventures, and other fictions and dramatic works dedicated to Vesuvius.