“A Trip through Italy” by Bishop Porphyrius (worldly Konstantin Uspensky) as a cultural and historical source

Abstract

The article presents the creative history of “A Trip through Italy” — an extensive section of “The Book of My Life”, a memoir and journalistic work of Bishop Porphyrius (worldly Konstantin Uspensky), who was an orientalist and a Byzantologist, a paleographer and an archaeologist. The basis for “A Trip through Italy” was the entries in his diary about his acquaintance with Italy in May to August, 1854. When preparing his work, Bishop Porphyrius significantly supplemented the travel notes with materials from rare publications. Thus, the narrative took the form of a unique historical and cultural source, the compositional core of which remained a journey through Italy. Bishop Porphyrius recorded the state of historical monuments, architectural masterpieces, and urban planning. These professional observations, often accompanied by drawings, acquire special value as evidence with history of a century and a half. In art galleries in Italy, Bishop Porphyrius stated in detail information about the number of exhibition rooms in his travel book, as well as about the location of paintings on their walls, describing not only the content of the paintings, but also his own impressions, which form a well-founded idea of the author’s aesthetic credo. Equally meticulous are the book collections, the treasures of the sacristy of many Italian cathedrals and the basilicas. In “A Trip through Italy” the author appears as a deep connoisseur and scrupulous researcher of Italian art.