La straordinaria storia di James Partridge negoziante e collezionista inglese a Livorno e Il Taccuino delle Silhouette

In the cosmopolitan Livorno of the 18th century, where merchants, travellers and visionaries’ paths cross, the enigmatic figure of James Partridge emerges: an English shopkeeper, a refined collector and a man of troubled faith. Surrounding him is a network of European artists, philosophers and adventurers, from the Zurich pastor Lavater to the painter Henry Fuseli, including spirited women and businessmen ready for anything.

Through letters, archives and a mysterious ‘Silhouette Notebook’ preserved at the Biblioteca Labronica in Livorno, Matteo Giunti and Hélène Koehl piece together, two centuries later, the fragments of a true story that blends into fiction: a tapestry of passions, ideals and obsessions where reason meets the supernatural, and where the death of a respectable man is tinged with shadow and legend.

Who was James Partridge really?