La costruzione della realtà penitenziaria: l’inchiesta sui bagni penali di Maurice Alhoy durante la monarchia di Luglio (1830-48)

Differently from Ancien Régime, the advent of the modern disciplinary prison has made punishment an experience not directly known by general public. The carceral image replaced the direct vision of the punishment. Starting from this assumption, the essay analyzes texts, and especially iconography, of the illustrated volume Les Bagnes, Histoire, types, mœurs, mystères, published in 1845 by Maurice Alhoy. Alhoy, journalist and writer, conducted an on-the-field investigation, describing to the French public the last penal colonies (les bagnes) closed to being erased by the modern instruments of punishment. However his portray of the «ancient» penal colonies is already strongly influenced by the new model of the disciplinary prison coming from the United States.

Keywords: Penal colonies; Penitentiary iconography; History; French.