Luigi Robecchi Bricchetti

Luigi Robecchi Bricchetti (21 May 1855 – 31 May 1926) was an Italian explorer, geographer, and naturalist.

Biography

Robecchi Bricchetti was an illegitimate son of the noble Hercules Robecchi and the young seamstress Teresa Brichetti.^[2]

He joined the faculty of Civil Engineering at the University of Pavia in his native city, but he continued his studies at the University of Zurich and graduated in Karlsruhe, Germany.^[3][4]

He was a person of many cultural and scientific interests (ethno-anthropology, geography, geology, zoology, etc.), with an excellent knowledge of languages, including Arabic, which he spoke fluently.^[4] He dedicated himself intensively to document^[5] and combat widespread slavery in Africa.^[2]

A classic nineteenth-century explorer, he returned to Pavia from his travels with a large number of objects and African documents and a Somali boy whom he freed from slavery, and then adopted.^[2] He died in Pavia in 1926.^[3]

Travels and explorations

Robecchi Bricchetti spent much of his time in travel to distant lands, in particular Africa. In fact he was the first European to visit extensively the region in the Horn of Africa referred to as Benadir, to which he gave its current name of Somalia.^[3]

In 1885 he went to Egypt, and with a small caravan he reached the Oasis of Siwa in the Libyan desert.^[6][7]

In 1888^[6] he left from Zeila in Somalia, crossed the Danakil Desert, and arrived in Harrar in Ethiopia, where he remained several months, gathering scientific findings of various kinds, and taking photographs.^[8]

In 1890 he left for a new trip to Somalia for an exploration of the unknown region of Hobyo. ^[1][6] During his journey of more than two thousand kilometers he reached Alula and realized a large number of maps and photographs.^[9]

Between 1890 and 1891 he explored the unknown territory of Migiurtinia^[1] with significant cartographic and ethnographic observations. In 1896 he made a new crossing of the Libyan desert up to the Oasis of Siwa. ^[6] His last trip to Africa was in 1903.^[2]

The scientific collections

At his death Robecchi Bricchetti's collections were assigned to various specialists of the time (Charles Emery for ants, Raphael Gestro for the beetles, Pietro Pavesi for spiders and scorpions, Paul Magretti for wasps and grasshoppers, Arturo Issel for the shells, etc.). In particular, reptiles were sent to the herpetologist George Albert Boulenger of the British Museum. On the basis of the collections obtained, Boulenger described and dedicated to Luigi Robecchi Bricchetti a pygmy chameleon (Rhampholeon robecchii, now considered a subspecies of Rieppeleon kerstenii ) and an agama (Agama robecchii ).^[10] Also, he is honored in the name of a catfish (Clarias robecchii, synonym of Clarias gariepinus), dedicated to him by the ichthyologist Decio Vinciguerra. ^[3]

He donated important documentation to various museums, including the Ethnographic and Anthropological Museum of Florence and Rome. The Museum of Natural History of Pavia preserves the photo-archive, the library and various weapons and items collected in over 30 years of travel and explorations.^[6][2]

Bibliography

• Ettore Fabietti - Luigi Robecchi Bricchetti e la prima traversata della Somalia, Torino, G. B. Paravia, 1940;
• Francesco Surdich - L’immagine dell’Africa e dell’Africano nelle esplorazioni di Luigi Robecchi Bricchetti, in Miscellanea di storia delle esplorazioni, volume V, Genova, Bozzi Editore, 1983;
• Gabriele Gregoletto - Pianeta Terra. Dizionario di navigatori, esploratori, scienziati e viaggiatori che, con le loro azioni o imprese piccole e grandi, contribuirono principalmente alla conoscenza geografica della Terra, Cornedo Vicentino, 2004;
• Robecchi Bricchetti L., Esplorazione di Obbia: rapporto, in: Bollettino della Società Africana d’Italia, a. IX, 1890, pp. 124-130, 204, 245-261;
• Robecchi Bricchetti L., Gl’Isa Somali, in: Bollettino della Soc. Africana d’Italia, 1890, pp. 15-19;
• Robecchi Bricchetti L., Harrar: ricordi di viaggio, in: L’illustrazione italiana, a. XII, 1890, p. 163 e p. 190;
• Robecchi Bricchetti L., Harrar, in: La tribuna illustrata, a. I, n. 46, 1890, pp. 715-717;
• Robecchi Bricchetti L., In viaggio per l’Harrar, in: Nuova Antologia, 1890;
• Robecchi Bricchetti L., La prima traversata della penisola dei Somali, in: Bollettino della Società Geografica Italiana, maggio e seguenti, 1893;
• Robecchi Bricchetti L., Lettere dall’Harrar, in: Bollettino della sezione fiorentina della Società Africana d’Italia, vol. IV, 1888, p. 243; vol. V, 1889, p. 57; vol. VI, 1890, p. 130;
• Robecchi Bricchetti L., Lettere dall’Harrar, in: Bollettino della Società africana d’Italia, a. VIII, fasc. I - II, 1889, pp. 35-38;
• Robecchi Bricchetti L., Sulla via dell’Harrar, in: La Riforma illustrata, dispensa VIII (“L’Africa italiana”), 1890;
• Robecchi Bricchetti L., All’oasi di Giove Ammone, F.lli Treves, Milano, 1890;
• Robecchi Bricchetti L., I nostri protetti (i Galla) , Stab. Tip. Lit. Succ. Marelli, Pavia, 1894;
• Robecchi Bricchetti L., Nel paese degli aromi: diario di una esplorazione nell’Africa orientale: da Obbia ad Alula
• Robecchi Bricchetti L., Da Obbia ad Alula, in: Bollettino della Società Geografica Italiana, s. III, vol. IV, 1890;
• Robecchi Bricchetti L., Il commercio di Tripoli, in: Memorie della Società Geografica Italiana, vol. 6, 10 aprile 1896;
• Robecchi Bricchetti L., Lettera dall’Harrar sul Borelli, in: Bollettino della Società Geografica Italiana, s. III, vol. II, 1889, pp. 27-40;
• Robecchi Bricchetti L., Lingue parlate Somali, Galla e Harari. Note e studi raccolti ed ordinati nell’Harrar, in: Bollettino della Società Geografica Italiana, s. III, vol. III, 1890, pp. 257, 271, 380-391, 689-708; 5
• Robecchi Bricchetti L., Ricordi di un soggiorno nell’Harrar, in: Bollettino della Società Geografica Italiana, gennaio 1891;
• Robecchi Bricchetti L., Un’escursione attraverso il deserto libico all’oasi di Siuva
• Robecchi Bricchetti L., Viaggio nel paese dei Somali, in: Bollettino della Società Geografica Italiana, s. III, vol. III, 1890, pp. 869-879 e 996-1008;
• Robecchi Bricchetti L., Nell’Harrar, Galli, Milano, 1896;
• Robecchi Bricchetti L., Somalia e Benadir: viaggio di esplorazione nell’Africa orientale, prima traversata della Somalia per incarico della Società Geografica Italiana, Carlo Aliprandi, Milano, 1899;
• Robecchi Bricchetti L., Tradizioni storiche dei Somali Migiurtini raccolte in Obbia, Tip. Min. Affari Esteri, Roma, 1891;
• Silvio Zavatti, Uomini verso l’ignoto. Gli esploratori nel mondo, Ancona, Gilberto Bagaloni Editore, 1979.

References