The Vatican Library opens its doors to honor the first women who made the world alone

The exhibition ‘In route‘, (‘ On the way ‘), part of a copy of the first edition of’ The return to the world in 80 days’ by Julio Verne, from 1873. The text aroused the interest of bohemians and adventurers on that route. Interestingly, the Vatican remembers six fascinating women who undertook that trip around the globe.

The most interesting proposal reminds two New York journalists, Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisend. In 1889, Nellie Bly proposed to the director of the ‘New York World‘, newspaper Joseph Pulitzer, Try to go around the world in less than 80 days. His boss accepted the proposal, but replied that he would order her to a man, because he was not suitable for a woman. «First, you are a woman and you will need a companion. But, even if you could travel alone, you would have to carry so much luggage with you that it would make it difficult for you to change the quick changes, ”he replied. Bly then threatened to sell the report to rival newspapers, and went out with his.

The idea of ​​Nellie Bly beat the ‘record’ of Phileas Fogg became so popular, that too ‘Cosmopolitan‘He commissioned another journalist, Elizabeth Bisland, to make the same trip and leave at the same time from New York, but starting in the direction of the west.

Nellie Bly arrived in Europe and only deviated from her route to meet and greet Julio Verne In Amiens. Weeks later, she won the challenge because she returned to New York in 72 days. He was so successful that they launched a kind of board game with 72 boxes, the ‘All Records Broken’, which lists the stages he toured. He beat the FOGG record, although Elizabeth Bisland also did, because it took only 76 days to complete the same trajectory through the west.

The exhibition shows that board game, and wonders about the cultural impact of these oceanic trips starring women. In charge of the answer to Maria Grazia Chiuriartistic director of the Women’s Collection of Christian Dior.

“I wanted to talk about how these women from Victoriana era felt the need to change suit to be able to make this trip, for example, to go by bike,” Chiuri replies. Tells it through some Conceptual tapestries in which it combines sewing patterns, maps of these trips and fabrics and embroidery of remote places.

As we are in a library, one of Chiuri’s maps includes a phrase from Simone de Beauvoir‘Femininity, The Trap’, (femininity, trap), which he used for an article published in Vogue in 1947. «Simone de Beauvoir mentions in that article adjectives that characterize the way of referring to women, and that in use Naive we think positive, such as ‘intuitive’ or ‘fascinating’. Then, disassemble the use of that language to explain that these are really self -referential expressions by men. It is not about stop using them but to learn to wonder about the meaning of words, ”he says Giacomo Cardinale. «It seems to me an appropriate concept for an exhibition in a library».

The exhibition also includes poetic drawings in one and three dimensions of the Icelandic illustrator Kristjana S Williams. In them combines maps, exotic animals, monuments and objects and means of transport of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, to reproduce the spirit of those trips. The Italian singer Lorenzo Jovanotti He explained in the presentation that his idea was to offer a ‘pop installation’ in which “imagines a trip through the things I have felt and done through my life, as if it were a bicycle through my sounds.”

While versions of the great melodies that have composed during his trips are heard, you can see scores, drawings, annotations and books that have accompanied him. “The truth is that there is no possibility of ‘returning’ of any trip, because when we return, we have always been transformed. Every trip is a pilgrimage. Maybe it is because all life is a return to ‘the house’ that is waiting for us, ”he said.

The exhibition, a conceptual tour that leads to questioning about life as a trip, encounter and fashion, can be visited from February 14 and will be open until the beginning of 2026.