Pompeii and its material reproductions: the rise of a tourist site in the nineteenth century

Abstract

Tourists represent a quest for authenticity, a modern variation on the universal human concern with the authentic nature of the sacred. The tourist is a contemporary pilgrim, seeking authenticity in other times and other places, and in this quest, he procures various tangible objects, which function as concrete reminders of the memory of his journey. The diffusion of this vicarious experience of sight, through the production, dissemination and acquisition of tangible souvenirs, is a vital step in process of a locale's rise in the tourist's consciousness. This essay examines the evolution of Pompeii as a tourist destination in the latter half of the nineteenth century as a case study on the theme of secular pilgrimage. This process is examined through the concentric lenses of the evolution of the site, Edward Bulwer-Lytton's novel The Last Days of Pompeii, guidebooks, the production of souvenirs by the Chiurazzi Foundry and the creation of works of art, including Giovanni Maria Benzoni's I Pompeiani (1873).