Un emigrat italian dins la regien marselhesa a la bèla epòca - Giambattista Cane

Un emigrat italian dins la regien marselhesa a la bèla epòca - Giambattista Cane

(An Italian emigrant in the Marseilles region during the Belle Epoque)



Provence owes Italy its name, its language, the origins of its civilization, and a considerable population contribution at the turn of the last two centuries. This contribution, so well integrated nowadays, did not take place without convulsions, but from the beginning the proximity of common references traced the road of convergences.

The precious testimony of which we will find here a very large extract was saved from disappearance by Enrico Berio, Honorary Director of the State Archives of the Prefecture of Imperia in Liguria. It was published by him and the Cumpagnia of the Urivu of the same city, under the title "Storia di un giovane povero" in 2011 by Amadeo.

The author, Giambattsta Cane, was born in 1868 in the village of Pietrabruna near the city of Imperia, in a disinherited family and a period of severe economic crisis. At the age of fifteen, after the death of his father, he was forced to emigrate to the region of Marseilles. Returning to his country after many vicissitudes, which he recounts with humor and emotion, this self-taught man writes his memoirs when he has finally been able to rise to a prosperous social position.

The Association pour l'enseignement de la langue d'oc de Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur has received the kind permission of Enrico Berio to publish the text and the Provençal translation of all the chapters dealing with the author's stay in Provence. The aim is to provide a better understanding of a crucial period in the history of Provence and Liguria, and to demonstrate the capacity of the langue d'oc, situated at the crossroads of the Romance languages, to open up the school public as well as the general public to direct contact with other expressions of Latinity.

The historian Stéphane Mourlane of the University of Aix-Marseille has written an important introduction that provides an overview of Italian immigration to Provence.


Bilingual book Italian - Provençal, translated from Italian by Alain Barthélémy-Vigouroux
Published by AELOc.

The AELOc has been kindly authorized by Enrico Berio to publish the text and the Provençal translation of all the chapters related to the stay in Provence of the author Giambattsta Cane (born in 1868 in Liguria).