Römische Historische Mitteilungen 65/2023, pp. 185-230, 2024/05/01
The ‘Italians’ in Vienna – whether they came from Italy, from the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland or from the Adriatic region – were a clearly linguistically and visually, but also confessionally perceptible group of residents within the capital and royal residence. As permanent residents or as temporary labour migrants, they were able to occupy diverse niches within the early modern spectrum of occupa-tions of the city. For example, they could be found as lemon merchants, silk makers, chimney sweeps, ice-cream sellers, salami sellers, rag pickers or highly esteemed construction workers. In culinary terms, ‘Italian Vienna’ lives on in the haberdash-ery, in the mandoletti makers, the biscuit bakers and the rosolio producers. The Viennese court (with its music band, the court poets, or the court library) and the military offered important career options to the well-connected Transalpini. We know little about the self-image of the ‘Italian Viennese’. It is difficult to say whether the Transalpini in Vienna interpreted themselves as immigrants, as emigrants, as migrants, as labour migrants or as migrants, or how their self-image was shaped at all. The Italians living in Vienna had ‘double identities’ that adapted to both the society of origin and the society of arrival.
