Alessandro Malaspina: An Italian/Spaniard at Port Jackson

Laura Olcelli

doi:10.5130/sj.v4i1.2784

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Published: Oct 21, 2013

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5130/sj.v4i1.2784

Keywords:

Italian presence in Australia, Spanish expeditions, British colonialism, Port Jackson, voyage accounts

Laura Olcelli

University of Sydney

Abstract

Tuscan-born and Spanish-trained Alessandro Malaspina (1754-1810) captained the most significant scientific expedition ever launched by Spain in the years 1789-1794. After a survey of the Spanish colonies in America, he directed the course of the Descubierta towards the South Pacific and anchored at Port Jackson on 11 March 1793. In my essay I will scrutinize the New South Wales leg of Malaspina’s voyage account, comparing 'Viaje político-científico alrededor del mundo' (the original 1885 Spanish edition) and 'Journal of a Voyage by Alejandro Malaspina' (its 2001 English translation), and integrating them with the captain’s secret reports. The examination of Malaspina’s comments on the infant colony will simultaneously expose the Spanish attitude to early British colonialism in New South Wales, and help assess Malaspina’s complex role as the first explorer who reached Terra Australis from the Italian peninsula.

Issue

Vol 4 No 1 (2013): From the Ground Up: People and Places in Sydney's Past

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Articles

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Author Biography

Laura Olcelli, University of Sydney

Laura Olcelli received a Bachelor’s Degree in Modern Languages and Cultures in September 2006, and a Master’s Degree in European and American Cultures in April 2009, both from Università degli Studi di Pavia, Italy. In August 2010 she was awarded a Master of Philosophy by research in English from The University of Sydney, with a thesis entitled 'Italy and the Italian Language: Female Self-Fashioning on the Grand Tour'. She has now begun her second year of Doctor of Philosophy at Sydney: she is researching Italo-Australian relations in travel literature in the nineteenth century.

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Laura Olcelli, University of Sydney