Andrew Swinton: Viaggio in Norvegia, in Danimarca ed in Russia. Negli Anni 1788, 89, 90 e 91 [Raccolta De’ Viaggi più interessanti eseguiti nelle varie parti del mondo, tanto per terra quanto per mare, dopo quelli del celebre Cook, e non pubblicati fin ora in lingua italiana XXV–XXVIII], trans. Luigi Bossi, 4 vols., Milano: Dalla Tipografia Sonzogno e Copm. 1816, vol. 2 (1816)

Signature: Ff 180-4162/1-4 raro II

Figures: Frontispiece (vol 2); p. 5; pl. 1; pl. 2

A quasi-ethnographic analysis of the Russian Empire was dedicated to Catherine the Great. Swinton describes Tatars as ‘ingenious people, but their lazy habits, and vagrant life have naturally given them all the attendant vices’. However, he sees it as a sign of progress that they are ‘learning to wash themselves’ (cf. vol. 2, p. 18). Building upon the insights of previous scholars of Tatar culture, particularly on Peter Simon Pallas (1741–1811) Reise durch verschiedene Provinzen des russischen Reiches (1771–1776, it. ed. 1816, 5 vols.), a Prussian professor at St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, the author compares their beliefs to those of both ancient Greeks and Romans and contemporary Native Americans. Such a primitivizing approach allows him to support a hypothesis that North Americans derived from Asia. His nostalgic praise of Tatar simplicity and honesty has melancholic undertones as he recognizes the unavoidability of their customs’ disappearance under the modern Russian rule, to which he is committed as a privileged beneficiary. The British author is clearly fascinated with Tatar culture’s attachment to horse-riding, which he considers honorable and compares with western nobility’s fascination with it. The Italian editor however, distances himself from this class-based claim in a footnote, quoting Horace’s reminder that ‘wealth permits stupidity‘ (cf. p. 26). [AM]

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