Famous for its historical monuments, Lucca is one of the few capitals to preserve the historic center, full of ancient structures from various eras, completely surrounded by a sixteenth-century wall that is intact and almost unchanged over the centuries. Notable art city of Italy of Roman origins (but on probable previous settlements), Lucca, city of merchants and weavers, maintained its autonomy as an independent state for several centuries until 1799 when the ancient Republic was supplanted, following the French conquest by Napoleon's troops, giving life to the Principality of Lucca and subsequently to the Bourbon Duchy of Lucca. The unusual guide we are publishing is definitely not a common travel guide, as Heinrich Heine is here entrusted with the duty of guiding the tourist through the city. Heinrich Heine (Christian Johann Heinrich Heine, born December 13, 1797 as Harry Heine in Düsseldorf, died February 17, 1856 in Paris) was one of the most important German poets, writers and journalists of the 19th century. Regarded as one of the last representatives and at the same time as the conqueror of Romanticism, he made everyday language capable of poetry, raised the feuilleton and the travelogue to an art form and gave German literature a previously unknown, elegant lightness. Hardly any other poet in the German language has had his works translated and set to music so frequently. As a critical, politically engaged journalist, essayist, satirist and polemicist, Heine was admired as well as feared. He spent the second half of his life in exile in Paris. Anti-Semites and nationalists hated Heine because of his Jewish origins and his political stance after death. The outsider role shaped his life, his work and the history of its reception. Heine experienced the sea for the first time in 1827 and 1828 on trips to England and Italy. He described his impressions in further travel pictures, which he published between 1826 and 1831 in four volumes. These include the North Sea cycle and the works The Baths of Lucca and Ideas. His travel pictures often refer to role models such as Laurence Sterne’s Sentimental Journey through France and Italy or Goethe’s Italian Journey. The Travel pictures were of central importance for a whole generation of liberal German intellectuals, especially for the authors of Junge Deutschland. Published originally by Heine in 1831, this short picture of Lucca was translated by Elizabeth A. Sharp (Italian Travel Sketches, published in London by Walter Scott Ltd.). The essay by Havelock Ellis on Heine is taken from Heine’s Prose writings, also published by Scott in London (1887). The edition, which includes a note by Havelock Ellis on Heine, is completed by the pages on Lucca from the Murrey’s guide to Italy published in the years when Heine travelled to the town, as well as rapid notes about the most important monuments of Lucca compiled with the aid of Wikipedia.
