Bertolotto rival in Kassel

From the "The Bavarian People's Friend,Volume 17, 1840" and "La Fame" - Journal of science, literature, arts,. industry and theaters 1840.

Bertolotto, the flea tamer has found a rival in Kassel. Hr. Fiarenzi from Genoa announced, that he had trained "ants", taught them to march in rank and file, to climb scaling ladders and conquer a fortress, which was built of sugar; also, they were, on word of command’ able to retreat before the heat of a fire, while saving oats, crumbs of bread and small cut off pieces of cheese, with the result that they looked, in this way, like people who salvaged their belongings "under their arms" from the fire;

People still say that the present century had produced no great men: Bertolotto and Fiarenzi eclipse the finest intellects of all time.



Translation assistance from Google and from JohnThePotter

Records of real life in the palace & the cottage

Latest flea find on google books, is some Industrious fleas and also our friend Bertolotto. Given that the book is in the public domain, I'll quote the whole section.

Records of real life in the palace and the cottage, by Harriet Henriette Pigott revised by J. Galt, 1839, Page 234 - 237



Close on the steps of these royal visitors from Belgium, arrives Signor Bertolotti, in pompous terms announcing " Les puces travailleuses," and himself, as having been the charm, " the enthusiastic enjouement" of the brilliant receptions in stirring high-life, during the London season. Well I recollect these sea lions engrossing the conversation alternately with the agitating question of the Reform-bill; il Signor Bertolotti, et ses enfans cheris, following close after the reforming senatorial elders and their aspiring eleves, as they mounted to the drawing-room, from the convivial banquet below; the groom of the chambers in the rear, carrying hot Mocha coffee. The wise men from the east, north, south and west, assembled with intellectual aspects round the table, and eventually held out their hands for the fleas to crawl thereon, " with what appetite they may;"—the signal recompense awarded by il Signor for industry in actively mounting their little ladders, carrying buckets. Oh! it was a pleasant sight, to see the senators of Great Britain thus amused ; whose hands had wielded the pen that signed a reform and emancipation bill, that have placed all England, and her church, in a pleasant chaos of thoughts, actions and creed; making time pass too rapidly, fraught with inteli lectual experiments.

But this charming little caravan of amusing parvenus,—(because before the rapidity of intellect these animals were disdained, chased away by vulgar, uneducated chamber-maidens;) —are now, like many a youth, who by dint of pretending liberal principles and manoeuvres, obtains introduction into drawing-room circles, and dubbed by us conservatives " illiberals," (Oh! howunjustly !) "Parvenus."

Before the front of the Bourse of Grecian architecture, they now stand in competition with a spurious race of fleas—an opposition! But like thorough-bred tories, they valiantly face the enemy; for tories are fearless, having naught to conceal; and few of them ought to gain,—being high in their country's annals, for patriotism; rich by commerce or husbandry, or by ancestral descent; and some of them in valourous deeds, displayed in rightful causes on the battle-field. Thus, in France, we have usurpers even amongst the insect tribe. There they stand, in contact with cracked fiacres, deltas, venders of tribunal discourses, and of attempts to assassinate the reigning King of the French:—for in life, the little will imitate the great.

This classic edifice, which is of pure white stone, in the Grecian style of architecture, is a strange contrast, — a potent satire, on the ostensible purpose for which it was erected. French taste has not, in this instance, united the appropriate with the beautiful, by selecting the model of a classic Grecian temple, for the mercenary assignations of money-changers, and Jews' speculations; and amidst incongruous buildings.—They play a high game, amassing enormous riches by the credulity and ruin of others less adroit; sustaining or lowering, by false intelligence, (per telegraph,) les emprunts of revolutionary governments; their ignoble figures and hurried gait, their countenance inflated, convulsed with the avaricious agitations of their minds; while without, every adventurer is playing his game, by exhibiting his Punchinello, his industrious fleas, his games of hazard, and many inventive twopenny traffic, before the august elegance, before the pure colouring of its finely chiselled columns.

Guisepe Pariss - Industrious Living Fleas in Edinburgh

The Caledonian Mercury on Saturday March 29th 1834 reports of Giuseppe Pariss moving his show from Regent Street to 63 Prince Street, Edinburgh.



The timing of this is interesting as it could mean that Pariss was the rival next door to L. Bertolotto on Regent Street.

Giuseppe also appeared at the Theatre Royal in Perth as mentioned in the Story of the Scots Stage.

Guiseppe Pariss from Regent Street, London, with his Industrious
Living-Fleas, showing what "educated fleas" could do.

Ten years later the Industrious Fleas are back at 63 Prince Street, Edinburgh with a variety of other acts, it is not know if this is the same performer.

Also, the INDUSTRIOUS FLEAS will Perform a Variety of Feats too numerous to mention.


Ref:

Caledonian Mercury (Edinburgh, Scotland)
Saturday March 29 1834; Issue 17585
Saturday, March 2, 1844; Issue 19336
Saturday, March 9, 1844; Issue 19339

There is a known example of a Guisepe Pariss flier that has the same words as the above news paper clipping above but with large fonts for the titles, held in a collection in Scotland.

Industrious Fleas, Sloane Street Gallery 1851

Another 19th Century British Library Newspapers search for the Industrious Fleas performance has produced the following from the Morning Post.



It is still not know if this was one of L.Bertolotto's performances or one of his rivals.

ref: The Morning Post (London, England), Monday, April 29, 1851; pg. [1]; Issue 24144.
Magic Puk Old Exhibition in London.

Industrious Fleas in the news

News just in.... well from 1832 so I'm a little late.

Thanks to the British Library British Newspapers 1800-1900 archive, I've been chasing down those pesky Industrious Fleas. The great advantage of newspapers as a source is that they are dated and detail locations too. There is one drawback which is that the papers of the time liked to print snippets from other regional papers so there's a bit of duplication between the articles. I'm currently working through 40+ articles and will be updating the L.Bertolotto Flea Circus History page over the next few month.

A large range of newspapers have reported on L. Bertolotto's Industrious Fleas over the years, in locations such as:

Star Inn, Oxford,
No 4. Castle Street, Liverpool,
Exchange Ante-Room, Manchester,
Gallery of Arts Drawbridge, Bristol,
Assembly Room, Exchange, Belfast,
The Crown Hotel, High Street, Portsmouth,
The Subscription Rooms, Exeter,
11 Castle Square, Brighton,
6 Lune Street, Preston,
Somerset Gallery 151 Strand, London
Bordelese Gallery, London?

A couple of the adverts have an amusing poem.

The Fleas, the Fleas, the merry Fleas:
Let us flea to see the Fleas;
Over land and over seas,
The cry is, Have you seen the Fleas?



The articles also report of Giuseppe Paris at 63 Prince Street Edinburgh in 1834 and Kitchingman with a performance on the corner of Maddox Street and Regent Street in 1869.

Some interesting tangents to investigate too such as a court report on "Mr Augustus Rynam, who previous to 1854 kept on exhibition called the Industrious Fleas" and a few red herrings such as a ship called "Bertolotto" from Odessa.

Visiting Canadians and Bertolotto

Yesterday I had the pleasure to meet with Dr Barton who was visting from Canada. She was in London to visit the British Library and the Natural History Museum for research for a book on fleas she is writing. We had a long chat about all things big and small about fleas including real and "humbug" circuses, the plague, symbolism and famous flea performers from history.



Dr Barton has a copy of a letter sent by L. Bertolotto to a famous author that contains information about his early years and why he moved to Canada. I hope to put more on the site after her book is released. In the mean time it's given me some ideas of new areas to research.

Bertolotto Books

Whilst researching the History of L. Bertolotto, I've been specifically looking for references to his book, "The History of the Flea with Notes and Observations" and have been using google books to get me a short list of books to track down at the local library.

There are several documents that make reference to the Bertolotto books and confirm the publishing dates of 1834 (French and English Editions), and St. Petersbourg, 1838.

• Verzeichniss der Bücher über Naturgeschichte, 1846
• Bibliotheca entomologica, 1862
• Insects Affecting Domestic Animals, 1896
• Parasitology, 1908

There is also a reference to one of these books being sold at Sotherby in 1975, it would be interesting to know who bought it and what it sold for. The seller is listed as Ganthony (Robert) Bunkum Entertainments.

In addition I've been looking at the printers for the books. The American edition was printed by John Axford of 29 Ann Street, New York 1976. This is interesting because it is right next door to "Barnum's American Museum" which was located on the corner of Ann Street and Broadway. It suggests that Bertolotto may have met with Barnum at some point.

Sceptical Wikipedians

Over at Wikipedia the Wikipedians are questioning if real flea circuses really exist or existed historically and if it is really possible to train fleas.

This is something I have done myself a few times over the 5 years I have been investigating flea circuses. The problem is two fold, the first is that the very idea of a flea being "trained" to pull a small model is quite fantastic. The second problem is that the flea performers themselves like to hype up their performances and it is in the interests of those who don't perform with real fleas to have their audiences believe that they do. I also questioned the very existence of one of the great performers L.Bertolotto speculating at one point that he was a fiction created by Charles Dickens.

The question of L.Bertolotto is answered by the diverse range of different sources in which references to Bertolotto appear which I believe to be more than even Dickens could manage. The story of L.Bertolotto is fantastic but less fantastic than the idea that someone managed to make it all up and distribute clues all over the globe. It's a bit like a Flea Da Vinci code!

For me the existence that real flea circuses once existed is also covered by the diversity of the references. The film footage from British Pathe news is pretty convincing, the photos of the Torp flea performances in Denmark and Hecklers in New York are also quite believable. But the fact that at least 2 people have reproduced these acts (Cardoso and Noon) for me is the icing on the cake meaning conclusively that it can be done.

What do you think? Is there such a thing as a real flea circus?

More locations for Industrious Fleas

A couple of book references found via google books indicate that L. Bertolotto also performed at 100 Piccadillyin London and also in Plymouth. There is also some clarification on which of the Royals patronised the exhibition.

Passages in Foreign Travel
By Isaac Appleton Jewett
Published 1838
C.C. Little and J. Brown

Page 75 "The industrious Fleas, patronized by their Royal Highnesses, the Duchess of Kent and the Princess Victoria, may now be seen at No. 100, Piccadilly"


A history of Plymouth By Llewellynn Frederick W. Jewitt, Llewellynn Jewitt
Published 1873
W.H.Luke

Page 409 "Signor Bertolotto's exhibition of the Industrious Fleas opened in Plymouth, and cause a good deal of attraction"

More L. Bertolotto News

News just in.... from Legislature of the Province of Ontario 1908 vol 5

"And here I would say that I am indebted for the most of the information that I can give, respecting Bertolotto and his Fleas, to D. Jewell, Esq., broker, who was intimately acquainted with Bertolotto, Lt. Col, Gray of H. M. Customs, who was a member of the Stadacona Club during the time of Bertolotto's stewardship, and the Rev. E. A. W. King, M.A., Rector of St Peter's who witnessed on of Bertolotto's exhibitions in Boston. Mass."

This is another tantalising snippet that I found from google books when searching for "exhibit of trained fleas", I'll try to track down if there is more of this article. Apparently my nearest copies are in the USA or Canada.

• Legislative Assembly of Ontario
• Stadacona Club
• Bertolotto in Port Hope

The travels of L. Bertolotto

Thanks to two other researchers I have found out two more places where L. Bertolotto performed with his Industrious Fleas.

On his tour of the UK Bertolotto stopped in Cheltenham, the 'Cheltenham Journal' for 15 Sept 1834 advertised the performance at "No. 22 Pittville Street, where his wonderful little menagerie will go through all the feats which have, for the last three years, astonished and delighted the lovers of curiosity in the Metropolis."

Further afield Bertolotto advertises his Industrious Fleas at "1 door north of the Marvin House, over the bookstore". This performance in Saratoga Springs, NY contained fleas mascarading as the Presidential candidates Buchanan, Fillmore and Fremont. This dates the performance to be around 1856.

Puces Industrieuses

Thanks to La Bibliothèque nationale de France I now have yet more translation work to complete. They have sent me a copy of L. Bertolotto's "Histoire De La Puce avec Notes et Observations" with an introduction by Mon. Barillon, a lawyer. There appears to be some interesting additional notes here that are not in the London version that I have from the British Library

Sala, Monck, Bertolotto and loss of the Industrious Fleas

In my previous blog entry I mentioned that I had found a reference to the Industrious Fleas in a book by George Augustus Sala and wonder if it was connected to my research into L.Bertolotto. A trip to the Westminster Archives proved fruitful and after a little light reading I found the relevant section of the second volume and was both glad to see this strong connection between the world of the Flea Circus and the genealogical research linking Bertolotto in London and Canada. Sala mentions that Governor Monck's butler was the owner of the Industrious Fleas. However there is also a sad story to tell as Sala describes the destruction of the fleas in a fire.

Life and Adventures of George Augustus Sala written by himself
In Two Volumes
Vol II
Third Edition
Cassell and Company, Ltd 1895
Page 45

Across the Atlantic
"It was not until the summer of 1864 that I visited Quebec. Travelling, in the first instance, by steamer on the beautiful St. Laurence, and by the Thousand Islands, the romantic, old-fashioned aspect of the ancient capital of Lower Canada pleased me hugely. Quebec was then the residence of a Governor-General of Canada, Viscount Monck, and we were hospitably entertained at his Excellency's summer quarters near Quebec. I specially remember these viceregal dinners, for two very different reasons. Lord Monck's butler had been the proprietor of the original Industrious Fleas; and his talented troupe, includig the flea that drew the cannon, the flea that rode in the sedan-chair, and the flea that impersonated Napoleon Bonaparte's charger Marengo, had all been burnt - poor little insects! - in a terrible fire at the Governor's country seat."

The Governor and his family

Related links:

• A History of the Governor General in Canada
• Governors of Canada
• Happy Dominion Day
• George Augustus Sala
• Bertolotto Genealogy from Port Hope