PITRÈ, GIUSEPPE. - The greatest scholar of folk traditions that Italy can boast of, and one of the most distinguished in Europe, b. at Palermo on 22 Dec. 1841, d. there on 9 Apr. 1916. He practiced the profession of medicine throughout his life, without ever interrupting his activity as a scholar. He founded a Museum of Sicilian ethnography (now at the Favorita and enlarged through the efforts of Prof. G. Cocchiara). In his last years he held the chair of demopsychology at the University of Palermo.
His principal work remains the Biblioteca delle tradizioni popolari siciliane in 25 vols., which gathers the Corpus of the traditional life of the island, illustrating all its aspects, from songs, tales and legends, customs and usages, festivals and spectacles, to games, proverbs, riddles, etc. Also very important is the Bibliografia delle tradizioni popolari d'Italia (up to 1894: a second volume, in manuscript with his heirs, reaches as far as 1916). In 1882 he founded, together with another valiant Sicilian folklorist, S. Salomone Marino, and directed for more than twenty years the Archivio per lo studio delle tradizioni popolari, to which eminent philologists and ethnographers contributed. Alongside the journal he placed the series of Curiosità popolari tradizionali (15 vols.).
P. always knew how to join to an accurate and extensive collection of materials a profound understanding of the psychology and life of the people.
Bibliography4 works
Paolo Toschi