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homesteads in what were once the huge Roman latifondi (SLIDE 36) and the feudal estates of
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Sicily, the ancient windmills of the saltworks (SLIDE 37) that typify the south-western coast of
the Island (from Trapani to Marsala) , and the sulphur mines in the province of Agrigento,
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Caltanissetta and Palermo (SLIDE 38). There are many different ways of interpreting the
innumerable identarian elements present in the Sicilian landscape, but any interpretive
coherency will be tied to the possibility of collecting ample data and information destined for an
archival, bibliographic, iconographic and audio repertory able to confer depth to the
reconstruction and make the recuperation of memory possible.
From this point of view, the history and the economy of tuna fishing, more than any other
activity, have perhaps the greatest amount of available documentary evidence. The sources
include accountant registers, diaries of the raisi (indisputable leader of the tonnara workers on
land and sea), and notary contracts that regulated individual and collective relations. There are

also fiscal records and reports compiled by experts and technicians as well as legal documents
recording disputes between owners and managers of the tonnare quarrelling over territorial
th
fishing rights. Whereas the archives of numerous 19 century industries (citrus fruit, metal-
works, wine, sulphur, etc…) have been lost or destroyed, sometimes deliberately, with surprising
nonchalance, in the case of the tonnare, an abundance of diverse writings and documentation
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for both the large and small enterprises is available from the second half of the 19 century. This
material includes a vast number of photos taken by highly regarded professionals as well as

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amateurs photographers all attracted to the cruel ritual of the mattanza (SLIDES 39-41)(the
slaughter of the ensnared tuna with clubs). From this visual evidence, striking analogies and
variations among the different architectural styles emerge. Moreover, even if there are no two
identical tonnare, the photos – more so than written documents – illustrate essentially intact
spaces, phases of work and portraits of the workers, (SLIDES 42-44) offering a coherent
picture of what the different production sites – today totally unrecognizable – had in common.
A further reflection, in closing, regards the difficult relation between the architectonic and
preindustrial elements that need to be protected and the areas in which they are located. This is

not irrelevant and I only mention it here to point out the complexity and the difficulty of any

18 G. Valussi, La casa rurale nella Sicilia occidentale, L. Olschki, Firenze, 1968; B. Spano, “La
casa del latifondo centro-meridionale”, in Case contadine, Touring Club Italiano, Milano, 1979,
pp. 164-197.
19 G. Mondini, Le saline della provincia di Trapani, Trapani, 1881; G. Bufalino, Saline di Sicilia,
Sellerio, Palermo, 1988; S. Costanza, Tra Sicilia e Africa. Trapani. Storia di una città
mediterranea, Corrao, Trapani, 2005.
20 S. Addamo, Zolfare di Sicilia, Sellerio, Palermo, 1989; G. Barone – C. Torrisi (edited by),
Economia e società nell’area dello zolfo, S. Sciascia, Caltanissetta-Roma, 1989.
21 Besides V. Consolo, La pesca del tonno cit., see also, in particular: G. Lazzaro Danduso – E.
Zinna, La mattanza. Il ritorno di Ulisse, G. Maimone, Catania, 1987; R. La Duca, La tonnara di
Scopello, Grifo, Palermo, 1988; M. Lo Curzio, L’Architettura delle Tonnare, EDAS, Messina,
1991; G. Martorana, Tonnara, Sellerio, Palermo, 1995; N. Ravazza, L’ultima muciara. Storia
della tonnara di Bonagia, G. Maurici, Trapani, 2000; F. Morreale, Tonnare di ritorno. Santa
Panagia e le altre, Natura Sicula, Siracusa, 2009; Burri – Freed – List – Salgado – Scianna,
Tempo di tonni. Favignana, lo stabilimento Florio, con un testo di Silvio Governali,
Soprintendenza BB.CC.AA., Trapani, 2009; R. Alongi – G. Gini – R. Lentini (edited by), Lo
Stabilimento Florio di Favignana. Storia, iconografia, architettura, testi di Rosario Lentini,
Soprintendenza BB.CC.AA., Trapani, 2008.

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