"In the early 1960s, internationally acclaimed photographer Bruno Barbey crisscrossed Italy from north to south attempting to capture the spirit of the nation. Unpublished until now, these images appear here "as if from a long sleep," imbued with the mythology of the place. The Italians is a collection of Barbey's modern commedia dell'arte of beggars, priests, nuns, carabinieri, prostitutes, and mafiosi - archetypal figures whose exotic charms helped to make the films of Pasolini, Visconti, and Fellini so popular. The photographs are joined with the subtle pen of novelist and essayist Tahar Ben Jelloun to reveal the essence of Italy - a country where, as Barbey writes in his introduction, one still "believes in miracles.""--BOOK JACKET.