Francesco Negri (travel writer)

Francesco Negri (Italian pronunciation: [franˈtʃesko ˈneɡri]; 1623–1698) was an Italian Catholic priest who, during 1663-1666, travelled in Scandinavia. In 1670, he published an account of his travels entitled Viaggio settentrionale.

Biography

Negri was born in Ravenna, then part of the Papal States, and left his home city in 1663 to set out on his travels. When the middle-aged priest left his hometown of Ravenna and undertook a three-year voyage in Scandinavia, he became the first. Thus he was seen as unusual for an Italian by the Scandinavians in travelling independently, reflecting the contemporary image of his compatriots by other nations. As an example, King Frederick III of Denmark expressed surprise at seeing him so far from home.

Negri wrote often with a scientific perspective, examining the flora and fauna of the region, and made a series of anthropological observations, especially on the physical characteristics of the natives of Lapland. His approach was far from being reliably scientific in the modern sense, however, and he took his native region of Italy as the norm for considering differences with other populations.[1]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Hester, Natalie (2006). "An Unreasonable Journey? The Place of Europe and Italy in Francesco Negri's Viaggo Settentrionale". In David R. Castillo and Massimo Lollino, editors. Reason and Its Others: Italy, Spain, and the New World. Vanderbilt University Press. pp. 101–122.


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, September 01, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.