Emanuel Domenech

Emanuel Domenech's book appeared in Paris in 1867 under the title “Bergers et Bandits. Souvenirs of a trip to Sardinia”. Raimondo Carta Raspi, who published the work in his series “Discovering Sardinia. Travel Collection”, provides many details on the adventurous life of the Frenchman (1825-1903), who visited the island for the first time in 1835, when he attended the University of Sassari, and a second before 1867, when he returned “struck by the analogy of Sardinian customs with what I had read in the Bible and in Homer.”
In the same year, the book was published, after his return to Europe following a long period in North and Central America. The work is not based on direct knowledge of the island and therefore does not claim to be exhaustive and truthful, but on the contrary, it sometimes slips into statements that Carta Raspi himself (translator as well as preacher) does not hesitate to define as childish. The narrative style of comparison, especially with the Holy Scriptures, facilitates these pictorial flights. With regard to costumes, for example, he finds very distant analogies, relating them to the sources of antiquity; thus, in the clothing of Sardinian women there are “many reminiscences of how the Phoenicians, Pelasgians, Egyptians, Babylonians and Greeks were dressed”, or the festival of Sant'Efisio itself reminds him of the Greek ceremonies in honor of Ceres. In Sant'Antioco, the “troglodyte” population comes out of the caves where they live only to hear the preaching of a Jesuit, and at Asinara the Sardinians live in houses built on myrtle trees.
Embarking from Marseille on a brig rented by his father, he had made the crossing to Porto Torres (“a small wretched village, gay like an abandoned cemetery”) in twenty-seven days, and had immediately gone to Sassari, to stay there for several days, to describe the suggestive candlestick ceremony. Thus began his journey described quickly and with a lively pen, from which the verve of an experienced world traveler shines through, a pen subtly ironic in describing certain customs, or certain forms of popular credulity to which faith often borders. A romantic spirit, he also emphasizes dark and dramatic aspects, such as the spirit of revenge and the violence of certain customs, weighing down certain pages excessively in describing an ancient and imaginary island, too far from the reality of a century in which it experienced profound changes.

Update

25/6/2026 - 13:35