Un governo mite, un popolo felice”: La Venezia di Friedrich Leopold von Stolberg (1792)

This paper aims at offering a renewed view on Friedrich Leopold von Stolberg's (1750-1819) relations with Italy, and in particular with Venice. Stolberg's travel accounts, published in 1794, are one of the most comprehensive narratives in the tradition of the Grand Tour. Stolberg wrote also on Venice, and in this paper we provide the first ever Italian translation from the German original, of the parts of the lengthy account devoted to Venice. This paper provides also a discussion on the most recent literature on Stolberg, taking into account as a privileged perspective his relations with Italy, that were of paramount importance for his conversion to Catholicism. The conversion took place in 1800 and a major scandal as well as polemics ensued in Germany.