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Wait, there were no black people in Italy in the 1800s? Italy isn’t exactly far from Africa - Africans were part of the Roman Empire, and Shakespeare was writi
by tamori 4y ago
Wait, there were no black people in Italy in the 1800s? Italy isn’t exactly far from Africa - Africans were part of the Roman Empire, and Shakespeare was writing about black people in Italy only a couple centuries earlier - Heck, Othello was based on an Italian story written around the same time as Pinocchio, and that one had a black protagonist, too! They may not have been a majority, but they existed.
- peoplefromibiza 4y ago> Italy isn’t exactly far from Africa yep... but there a thing called the sea between them > Africans were part of the Roman Empire 1400 years before Pinocchio times > Othello was based on an Italian story In Venice, set 400 years before Pinocchio. Where Pinocchio lived and where Collodi set the story there were no black people in ~1850s Not that some black person couldn't be found in Florence, but Pinocchio is set in a small village where people knew each other and didn't travel far from home. People mostly lived a self segregated life. There's a reason why there aren't many popular Italian books of the time including black people, they were not a numerous presence. I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed from Manzoni) it's probably the most popular Italian novel ever, it was written around the same time of Pinocchio and is set in Milan in 1630s during the plague and the Spanish rule. There isn't a single black person mentioned in the ~600 pages that make the book.