The Sicilian Ethnographic Museum Giuseppe Pitrè (

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

: Museo Etnografico Siciliano Giuseppe Pitrè) is a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

in Palermo,

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. The museum has two locations: the main part is located in one of the

Palazzina Cinese The Chinese Palace ( it, Palazzina Cinese), also known as ''Real Casina alla Cinese'', is a former royal residence of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies designed in the style of ''Chinoiserie''. It is located in Palermo, inside the park of La Fav ...

's guesthouse, inside La Favorita Park, and another is in the Albergaria quarter, within the historic centre of Palermo. The museum was founded by the scholar

Giuseppe Pitrè Giuseppe Pitrè (22 December 184110 April 1916) was an Italian folklorist, medical doctor, professor, and senator for Sicily. As a folklorist he is credited with extending the realm of folklore to include all manifestations of popular life. He is ...

in 1909 and is named after him. It houses a rich

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

containing more than 30,000 volumes and provides many types of documentation about Sicilian culture, traditions and folklore.

Costumes

The costume section opens with men's clothes. The most primitive is that of shepherds consisting of a jacket and

breeches Breeches ( ) are an article of clothing covering the body from the waist down, with separate coverings for each leg, usually stopping just below the knee, though in some cases reaching to the ankles. Formerly a standard item of Western men's c ...

() formed with goat skins. Animal skin also the pocket, carried crossbody, where wine and food were placed, and the typical footwear, the . Various models of festive costume, of which the breeches (''càusi''), the waistcoat ('''u cileccu''), the jacket, the cap () or a

turban A turban (from Persian دولبند‌, ''dulband''; via Middle French ''turbant'') is a type of headwear based on cloth winding. Featuring many variations, it is worn as customary headwear by people of various cultures. Communities with promin ...

() are some of the typical elements. The museum has different types of hats, related to street life and fields, such as , worked with straw filaments. Shirts and underpants are part of a newer kit. With fine linen, the shirt is wide and wide, while the underpants are always long and white. The base of heavier garments, including the , a long cloak with a hood, was , a heavy woolen fabric, which in Sicily was almost always colored in black. Of ''orbace'' for example is the typical costume of the peasants of

Modica Modica (; scn, Muòrica) is a city and ''comune'' of 54,456 inhabitants in the Province of Ragusa, Sicily, southern Italy. The city is situated in the Hyblaean Mountains. Modica has neolithic origins and it represents the historical capital ...

. On display in the museum are disparate simple women's costumes for fabrics and cutting, sumptuous for brocades and sewers. Those of the peasants were usually composed of a cotton bust (dispersals), '' the ''petti coat'' () and an

apron An apron is a garment that is worn over other clothing to cover the front of the body. The word comes from old French ''napron'' meaning a small piece of cloth, however over time "a napron" became "an apron", through a linguistics process cal ...

().

References

External links

Official website

Museo etnografico siciliano Giuseppe Pitrè - ''balarm.it''
1909 establishments in Italy Museums established in 1909 Museums in Palermo Libraries in Palermo Ethnographic museums in Italy Biographical museums in Italy {{ethnographic-museum-stub