View source for Giuseppe Pitrè

{{short description|Italian ethnologist (1841–1916)}}
[[File:Giuseppe Pitre.jpg|thumb|Giuseppe Pitrè]]
[[File:Il dott. Giuseppe Pitrè che raccolse le tradizioni e i costumi popolari della Sicilia.jpg|thumb|Giuseppe Pitrè]]

'''Giuseppe Pitrè'''{{efn|Most sources, including [http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/giuseppe-pitre_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/ ''Enciclopedia Treccani''], register the spelling ''Pitrè'', with grave accent, implying that the final stressed vowel is pronounced open [ɛ]. A few others, such as ''DOP'' (''Dizionario d'ortografia e di pronunzia'') and [http://www.sapere.it/enciclopedia/Pitr%C3%A9%2C+Gius%C3%A8ppe.html ''Sapere'' encyclopedia], prefer ''Pitré'', indicating close-mid [e].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dizionario.rai.it/poplemma.aspx?lid=28123|title=Pitré|work=Dizionario d'Ortografia e di Pronunzia|language=it|access-date=2019-04-08|archive-date=2022-02-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220221163052/http://www.dizionario.rai.it/poplemma.aspx?lid=28123|url-status=dead}}</ref> During the 19th century almost only the grave accent was in use, and the genuine Sicilian pronunciation is {{IPA|scn|pɪˈʈɽɛ|}}.}} (22 December 1841<ref>{{cite web|url=http://notes9.senato.it/Web/senregno.NSF/9a29a2e73f195df7c125785d0059b96c/b3d4fb87eed95a814125646f005e9480?OpenDocument|title=PITRÈ, Giuseppe|work=Senatori d'Italia — Senatori del Regno (1848-1943)|language=it|access-date=2020-05-12|archive-date=2018-07-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180718234549/http://notes9.senato.it/Web/senregno.NSF/9a29a2e73f195df7c125785d0059b96c/b3d4fb87eed95a814125646f005e9480?OpenDocument|url-status=dead}}</ref>{{snd}}10 April 1916) was an [[Italian people|Italian]] [[Folkloristics|folklorist]], medical doctor, professor, and senator for [[Sicily]]. As a folklorist he is credited with extending the concept of folklore to include all manifestations of popular life. He is also considered a forerunner in the field of [[medical history]].

Pitrè was born in [[Palermo]]. After serving as a volunteer [[Expedition of the Thousand|in 1860]] under [[Giuseppe Garibaldi|Garibaldi]], and graduating in medicine in 1866, he threw himself into the study of literature,<ref>{{Nuttall|inline=1|title=Pitrè, Giuseppe}}</ref> and wrote the first scientific studies on Italian popular culture, pioneering Italian [[ethnographic]] studies. He founded the study of "folk psychology", in Sicily, teaching at the [[University of Palermo]].

Between 1871 and 1913, he compiled the ''Biblioteca delle tradizioni popolari siciliane'' ("Library of Sicilian popular traditions"), a collection of Sicilian oral culture in twenty-five volumes.

Pitrè's ''Fiabe, novelle e racconti popolari siciliani'' ("Sicilian Fairy Tales, Stories, and Folktales"), 1875, documenting Sicily's rich folkloric heritage derived from both [[European folklore|European]] and [[Arab folklore|Middle Eastern]] traditions, is the culmination of the great European folklore scholarship that began earlier in the 19th century. Against the cultural grain of his times, Pitrè championed the common people of Sicily and their customs, and his scholarship of oral narrative tradition is arguably as significant as that of the [[Brothers Grimm]].

In 1880 Pitrè co-founded the folk traditions journal ''Archivio per lo studio delle tradizioni popolari'' (English: Archive for the Study of Popular Traditions), which he edited until 1906, and in 1894 he published a basic bibliography of Italian popular traditions. He was made an honorary member of the [[American Folklore Society]] in 1890. Palermo's ''[[Sicilian Ethnographic Museum Giuseppe Pitrè|Museo Antropologico Etnografico Siciliano]]'' was founded in his memory.

==Notes==
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==References==
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{{refbegin}}
*{{in lang|it}}[http://www.irsap-agrigentum.it/pitre1.htm Brief biography]
* [[Amedeo Benedetti (writer)|Amedeo Benedetti]], ''“Io vivo nel popolo e del popolo” : Contributo alla vita di Giuseppe Pitrè'', “Esperienze Letterarie”, a. XXXVII (2012), n. 1, gennaio-marzo, pp.&nbsp;59–84.
* Zipes, Jack. :The Indomitable Giuseppe Pitrè." ''Folklore'', volume 120, no. 1 (April 2009): 1-18.
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==External links==
* {{Gutenberg author | id=39005| name=Giuseppe Pitrè}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Giuseppe Pitrè |sopt=w}}
* Martinengo-Cesaresco, Evelyn. "[[s:Folk-Lore/Volume 27/Obituary/Giuseppe Pitrè|Giuseppe Pitrè (Obituary)]]" ''Folk-Lore''. Volume 27, 1916. pp.&nbsp;314–316.

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[[Category:Italian ethnologists]]
[[Category:1841 births]]
[[Category:1916 deaths]]
[[Category:Politicians from Palermo]]
[[Category:Italian folklorists]]
[[Category:Folklorists of Sicilian folklore]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Palermo]]
[[Category:Burials at San Domenico, Palermo]]
[[Category:Physicians from Sicily]]
[[Category:Collectors of fairy tales]]


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