Welcome to the Victorian Underground Project

These exquisite images depict an often ignored and misunderstood community of travellers who occassionally passed through Victorian England during the earlier part of the 19th century.

Photograph #1 is of Ravenna Genovese, an Italian fortune teller who was, according to local folklore, 150 years old. More impressive than this is that she never once charged anyone for her services. Instead she claimed that the angels in her dreams had told her to forewarn specific people all over the world about grave dangers coming their way, thus saving many people’s lives.

Photograph #2 depicts her daughter and apprentice Marta Genovese. We know she is an apprentice by the unusual conical veil which awkwardly covers her shoulders. An old manual we translated from Italian many years ago informs us that the purpose of the veil was to mute the voices of demons who were trying to sabotage God’s work.

There was, quite predictably, more sinister folklore which claimed that Ravenna and Marta were actually the same person who would curse anyone who dared to listen to their premonitions. We can confirm that this belief is unlikely to be true.

Regards

TVUP