GlobalContributions // de:Grand Tour / fr:Grand Tour
Origins (why England?)
La nascita di un'idea del viaggio come strumento di formazione, come mezzo di scambio e commercio intellettuale che, tramite il confronto, fa nascere e progredire la coscienza critica e la consapevolezza del viaggiatore, ha origine in Inghilterra e da lì si irradia. La predisposizione della cultura inglese all'empirismo determina la preferenza per l'esperienza diretta in luogo dei dogmatismi del sapere di cui la tradizione scolastica medievale era stata campione.
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Les premières éditions de l'Itinerario italiano paraissent dans les années 1800-1805 / L'ouvrage contient le détails d'un peu plus d'une cinquantaine de voyages entre des villes principalement italiennes. Les itinéraires abondent de descriptions sur la nature des gens et des paysages, de l'état des routes, des ponts et des cols, des édifices publics et religieux ainsi que des manufactures. Chaque itinéraire - qui est souvent complété de cartes géographiques illustrées dépliantes - est précédé de tableaux dans lesquels sont détaillés le prix des chevaux de poste, les distance en milles et le temps de voyage entre chaque poste, la parité des monnaies et l'altitude des points culminants. Les bonnes auberges sont également recensées.
L'édition de 1844, dans son introduction, rappelle quelques notions utiles à un étranger voyageant en Italie, à cette époque, comme l'obligation d'être en possession d'un passeport qui est visé par les autorités de chaque État. La détention de nombreux livres est déconseillée car elle complique les formalités douanières, en revanche la possession de lettres de recommandation, pour un meilleur accueil, doit être privilégiée ainsi que celle de lettres de créance afin d'éviter le port d'argent comptant. Cette même édition indique aussi les entreprises de transport maritime et la rotation des bateaux à vapeur sur la Méditerranée et sur les lacs alpins italiens. C'est également le guide préféré de Stendhal |
| Event | Tourist Bearleader |
Countries | Effects / Comments | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1580(June 22)- 1581(Nov 30) [Aged 47] |
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) | started France; de,at,ch,it | 1774 pub: Journal du voyage de Michel de Montaigne en Italie, par la Suisse et l’Allemagne, en 1580 et 1581 fr:Michel_de_Montaigne#Voyageur : « Faire des voyages me semble un exercice profitable. L’esprit y a une activité continuelle pour remarquer les choses inconnues et nouvelles, et je ne connais pas de meilleure école pour former la vie que de mettre sans cesse devant nos yeux la diversité de tant d’autres vies, opinions et usages. » https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k102055b | ||
| 1597?-1603? 1606 1613/14 |
Inigo Jones (1573-1652) | it | 1617-35 Queen's House, Greenwich 1619-22 Banqueting House 1630+ Covent Garden Piazza Le jeune maître décorateur séjourne à plusieurs reprises en France entre 1598 et 1614; en Italie entre 1597 et 1603 où il s'initie à l'art du designo, revenant notamment à Venise et à Vicence en 1606 et 1613/1614. Il visite Rome, Vicence, Venise, Florence et Sienne. Il revient en Angleterre, puis retourne à Venise en 1606 avec Lord Arundel ; il y rencontre l’ambassadeur Sir Henry Wotton. Wotton procure à Jones un exemplaire de l’édition de 1570 des Quattro Libri de Palladio. Entre 1613 et 1614, Jones fait un séjour à Venise e rencontre Scamozzi, e lui acheta une partie des dessins de Palladio. Rentré en Angleterre, il s'en inspira pour construire la Queen's House (1617) et Banqueting House (1619) à Londres. | ||
| 1608 [Aged 31] |
Thomas Coryat (c.1577–1617) | fr,it / ch,de,nl
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1611 Coryat's Crudities Coryat's writings were hugely popular. Accounts of inscriptions, the table fork, music in Venezia. He is considered by many as first Briton to do a Grand Tour | ||
| 1610 1634 |
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) | Lord Cavendish's son in 1610 and the Earl of Devonshire's son in 1634 on their Grand Tours. His position as an educator in one of England's leading noble families, which was to support him throughout his life, gave him the opportunity to travel extensively and to come into contact with leading politicians and thinkers of his time. | |||
| 1613-14 [Aged 28] |
Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Arundel (1585-1646) Inigo Jones |
Italy ->Naples | 1615? first antiquities arrive? it was the far more extensive tour through Italy as far as Naples undertaken by the 'Collector' Earl of Arundel in 1613–14 that established the most significant precedent | ||
| 1613-1614 | Henry Peachum (1578-1644+) |
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| Francis Bacon (1561-1626) |
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| 1644-1647(?) [Aged 24] |
John Evelyn (1620-1706) | fr->Italy | 1818; Memoirs Illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn; first published *1818* Artists who particularly thrived on the Grand Tour market included Carlo Maratti, who was first patronised by John Evelyn as early as 1645 | ||
| 1648 | 1648
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| 1650 | Richard Lassels (c.1603-1668) | 1670; The Voyage of Italy published posthumously in Paris in 1670 and then in London. [1] (partial French translation) | |||
| 1687(Oct)- 1688(Oct) | Maximilien Misson (c.1650-1722) | it |
"The standard travel guide to Italy for the following fifty years" | ||
| 1695–1702 [Aged 19] |
Colen Campbell (1676–1729) | 1715: Vitruvius Britannicus pioneering Scottish architect and architectural writer, credited as a founder of the Georgian style (1714-1830). Basically a catalogue of design, containing engravings of English buildings by Jones and Wren, Campbell himself and others | |||
| 1701-1703 [Aged 29] |
Joseph Addison (1672–1719) | it | 1705; Remarks on several parts of Italy, &c., in the years 1701, 1702, 1703 (l'Italia costituiva, per Joseph Addison, il più eccentrico e variegato museo di forme politiche esistente al mondo [2]); [3] | ||
| 1721 [Aged 27] |
Jonathan Richardson the Younger (1694–1771) | it | 1722; An Account of Some of the Statues, Bas-Reliefs, Drawings, and Pictures in Italy compiled by Richardson the elder(1667-1745) using material gathered by his son whilst touring Italy in 1721. This was a very popular book and was used by young men as a basis for their Grand Tour. It was said that the book became the basis for future purchases of art by wealthy collectors and therefore shaped English interest in foreign old masters.[5] Important model for Winckelmann (1764) | ||
| 1728 | Montesquieu (1689-1755) | at,hu,it |
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| 1734 |
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| 1739(Mar)-1741(Sep) [Aged 21.] | Horace Walpole (1717-1797) | fr,it | Horace_Walpole#Grand_Tour:_1739–1741 with poet, scholar Thomas Gray (1716-1771) | ||
| 1739(May)- 1740 [Aged 30] |
Charles de Brosses (1709–1777) | it (to Napoli) |
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| 174x | Thomas Nugent (c.1700-1772) | nl,de,it,fr |
"The first detailed guidebook for English gentlemen wanting to go on the Grand Tour" | ||
| 1749-1751 | Charles-Nicolas Cochin (1715-1790) | it |
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| 1750?-1752(Oct) | Joshua Reynolds | it(Rome) | in Med 1749; From Minorca he travelled to Livorno in Italy, and then to Rome,[5] where he spent two years,[6] studying the Old Masters / Reynolds travelled homeward overland via Florence, Bologna, Venice,[7] and Paris.[8] | ||
| 1751(Mar)- 1753(autumn) | Nicholas Revett (1720-1804) James "Athenian" Stuart (1713-1788) |
gr | 1762-1816 Antiquities of Athens Funded by the Society of Dilettanti / Although Le Roy published his book in 1758, the accuracy of Revett and Stuart's work gives their survey a claim to be the first of its kind in studies of ancient Greece; for example, Revett and Stuart were the first Europeans to describe the existence of ancient Greek polychromy. | ||
| 1754(May 5)- 1755(Jul) | Julien-David Le Roy (1724-1803) | gr |
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| 1754 for 5 years to 1758 [Aged 26] |
Robert Adam (1728-1792) | 1760 beginnings of Adam style; 1st neoclassical architecture? He developed the "Adam Style", and his theory of "movement" in architecture, based on his studies of antiquity and became one of the most successful and fashionable architects in the country. / Robert Adam was a leader of the first phase of the classical revival in England and Scotland from around 1760 until his death.[2] He influenced the development of Western architecture, both in Europe and in North America. | |||
| 1755(Nov)- 1768(his death) | Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-1768) | it | 1764 History of Ancient Art Winckelmann's masterpiece was soon recognized as a permanent contribution to European literature. "a thorough, comprehensive and lucid chronological account of all antique art" The first work to define in the art of a civilization an organic growth, maturity, and decline. / Winckelmann's writings are key to understanding the modern European discovery of ancient (sometimes idealized) Greece,[23] neoclassicism, and the doctrine of art as imitation (Nachahmung). | ||
| 1763-1765 [Aged 26] |
Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) | Rome | 1776
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| 1763(June)- 1765(June) | Tobias Smollett (1721–1771) + wife | fr, it | 1766 pub; Travels Through France and Italy [4] | ||
| 1763(Aug?)- 1766(Feb) [Aged 23] |
James Boswell (1740–1795) | nl; de,ch; it, corsica, fr | Boswell in Holland and Boswell on the Grand Tour. Boswell in Holland, 1763–1764, including his correspondence with Belle de Zuylen (Zelide), ed. F. A. Pottle (1952); Boswell on the Grand Tour: Germany and Switzerland, 1764, ed. F. A. Pottle (1953); Boswell on the Grand Tour: Italy, Corsica, and France, 1765–1766, ed. Frank Brady and F. A. Pottle (1955) | ||
| 1764(Jun 6)- 1766(Nov 11) | Nicholas Revett (1720-1804) Richard Chandler (1737-1810) |
gr | 1769 à 1796 Antiquities of Ionia Funded by the Society of Dilettanti | ||
| 1765 [Aged 28] |
Charles Townley FRS (1737–1805) | it (Rome, the south, Sicily) | 1766+; Wealthy English country gentleman, antiquary and collector. Three Grand Tours to Italy (1765; 1772-1773; 1777), buying antique sculpture, vases, coins, manuscripts, drawings and paintings. Many of the most important pieces are now in the British Museum. In conjunction with various dealers, including Gavin Hamilton, and Thomas Jenkins, a dealer in antiquities in Rome, he got together a splendid collection of antiquities. | ||
| ???? | Philip Thicknesse (1719–1792) | France | 1768: Useful Hints to those who Make the Tour of France (seems to be a lot of whining about Smollett's tour) | ||
| ???? | Philip Thicknesse (1719–1792) + wife | France, Spain | 1777: A Year's Journey through France and Part of Spain | ||
| 1765(Aug)-1766 [Aged 27] |
Jérôme Lalande (1732–1807) | it | 1769; Voyage d'un François en Italie [5] contenant l'historie & les anecdotes les plus singulieres de l'Italie, & sa description, les mœurs, les usages, le gouvernement, le commerce, la littérature, les arts, l'histoire naturelle & les antiquités, avec des jugemens sur les ouvrages de peinture, sculpture & architecture, & les plans de toutes les grandes villes d'Italie. Discussion of heures italiques p43 to p49; deWP on the astronomer Lalande: 1765 bis 1766 reiste er nach Italien, wo er bei einer Audienz vom Papst erbat, die Werke von Nicolaus Copernicus und Galilei vom „Index“ zu nehmen. | ||
| 1769-1778 [Aged 13<<<] |
Douglas, 8th Duke of Hamilton (1756–1799) John Moore (1729 – 1802) |
France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy | 1779 pub: Moore: A View of Society and Manners in France, Switzerland and Germany; 1781: A View of Society and Manners in Italy | ||
| 1775 for 5 years | George Herbert, 11th Earl of Pembroke (1759–1827) Rev. William Coxe and Capt. John Floyd |
France, Austria, Eastern Europe, Russia and Italy | 1784: Coxe: Travels into Poland, Russia, Sweden and Denmark
1789: Mont Blanc and the Adjacent Alps 1789: Travels in Switzerland | ||
| Thomas Coryat | 1776 reprint of Coryat's Crudities (1611) | ||||
| 1778-1780 | Thomas Martyn (1735-1825) | it | 1787
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| 1780-1781 (1782x) [Aged 20] |
William Beckford (1760–1844) | 1783 pub: Dreams, Waking Thoughts and Incidents [6] | |||
| 1783-84 [Aged 37] |
King Gustav III of Sweden (1746-1792) | ||||
| 1785-1786 | Elizabeth Craven (1750–1828) | France, Germany, and Russia | 1814? Letters from the Right Honorable Lady Craven, to his serene highness the margrave of Anspach, during her travels through France, Germany, and Russia in 1785 and 1786 (travel writing, 1814) | ||
| 1786-1788 [Aged 37] |
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) | Italy | 1816,1817 pub: Italienische Reise book is based on Goethe's diaries and is smoothed in style, lacks the spontaneity of his diary report and is augmented with the addition of afterthoughts and reminiscences. | ||
| 1787-1789 | Arthur Young (agriculturist) (1741-1820) | France | 1792
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| 1788-1789 | Johann Gottfried Herder | ||||
| 1791 [Aged 22] |
Joshua Lucock Wilkinson (1769-1802+) [7] | fr(1791) fr,de,it(1793)
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1795 The Wanderer, or, A Collection of Anecdotes and Incidents Long, reflective work, describing Wilkinson's travels on foot. Contact with a wide range of people, a fascinating tapestry of European characters and attitudes | ||
| 1792 | 1792 French Revolution -> Napoleonic Wars | ||||
| 1801-1802 [Aged 38] |
Johann Gottfried Seume (1763-1810) | it
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1803 Spaziergang nach Syrakus [8] So reiste Seume im Jahr 1801/1802 nach Syrakus und legte weite Teile der 7000 km zu Fuß zurück / Eine zweite Reise führte ihn 1805/1806 nach Russland, Finnland und Schweden. | ||
| 1802-1803 | Joseph Forsyth (1763-1815) | it | 1813: Remarks on Antiquities, Arts and Letters during an excursion in Italy
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| 1807–1810 | Hermann von Pückler-Muskau | it | |||
| 1809-1811 [Aged 21] |
Lord Byron (1788-1824) +John Hobhouse (1786-1869) | Greece, Ottoman Empire | 1817. Hobhouse: A journey through Albania and other provinces of Turkey in Europe and Asia, to Constantinople, during the years 1809 and 1810 [9] Wegen der napoleonischen Kriege musste er die klassischen Reiseländer meiden und wandte sich daher verstärkt dem östlichen Mittelmeergebiet mit Griechenland und der Türkei zu. In den 1820er Jahren holte er den Besuch Italiens aber nach und hielt sich u. a. in Venedig und Pisa auf. / | ||
| 1815 | 1815 End of Napoleonic Wars | ||||
| 1816 | Stendhal [fr] (1783-1842) | it |
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| 1830 | Felix Mendelssohn | it | 1833: Italienische Sinfonie | ||
| 1831 | Hector Berlioz | it | 183x nachdem er im Vorjahr den Prix de Rome und damit ein zweijähriges Romstipendium gewonnen hatte. Spuren hat der Aufenthalt etwa in seiner Symphonie Harold en Italie, seiner Oper Benvenuto Cellini, seiner Ouvertüre Le carnaval romain, vor allem aber auch in seinem Reisebericht Voyage musical en Allemagne et en Italie von 1844 hinterlassen. | ||
| 1834(Oct) | Hans Christian Andersen | it | Er bereiste Italien von Dänemark aus siebenmal – mit der Kutsche, der Bahn und dem Schiff, die Reisen hinterließen tiefe Spuren in seinem Werk. |
After the advent of steam-powered transportation around 1825, the Grand Tour custom continued, but it was of a qualitative difference — cheaper to undertake, safer, easier, open to anyone. During much of the 19th century, most educated young men of privilege undertook the Grand Tour. Germany and Switzerland came to be included in a more broadly defined circuit.
- inigo jones/ 1630: covent garden piazza + 1st classical church, GT 1597 at age 25 (first of 2 GT)
- followed by turner, boswell, wordsworth and byron
- tobias smollet: necessary to get a new wardrobe in Paris
- Robert Adam: if my mother could see me now ..
- place des vosges, stolen by inigo jones for covent garden sq (20 years later)
- ij picks up from palladio
- it:Viaggio in Sicilia e a Malta (in inglese A Tour Through Sicily and Malta in a series of letters to William Beckford, Esq. of Somerly in Suffolk; from P. Brydone F.R.S.) è l'unica opera letteraria scritta da Patrick Brydone.
fr:Liste de récits de voyage en Italie
- fr:Les Antiquités de Rome, Du Bellay - 1558
fr:Journal de voyage en Italie (sur wikisource), Michel de Montaigne – 1580-1581- fr:Voyage sentimental à travers la France et l'Italie, Laurence Sterne – 1768
- Viaggio in Sicilia e a Malta, Patrick Brydone – 1773
- Journal inédit d'un voyage en Italie, 1773-1774 de Bergeret de Grancourt
- Voyage d'Italie, D. A. F. de Sade – 1775-1776
fr:Lettres historiques et critiques sur l'Italie, Charles de Brosses - 1799- Voyage en Italie, Chateaubriand - 1803
Itinerario italiano ed.3 (1803) [10]
Autori che dal 1580. fino ai nostri giorni han pubblicate i loro Viaggi d' Italia.
Montaigne parti di Francia nel 1580 .
Sandys parti per I'Italia nel 1610 Raymond nel 1646.
Lassels e` stato cinque volte in Iralia: egli era a Roma nel 1650.
Ray viaggiava in Italia nel 1663.
Il Vescovo Burnet nel 1683. e 86.
Misson nel 1687 e 88.
Addisson dal 1700. fino al 1703.
Richardson nel 1720.
Wright dal 1720. fino al 1722
John George Keysler / JOHANN GEORG KEYSSLER (1693-1743) dal 1729. fino al 1731 // Travels through Germany, Bohemia, Hungary, Switzerland, Italy and Lorrain : giving a true and just description of the present state of those countries... ; v. 2 / by John George Keysler. 1760
Gray con Orazio Walpole , Scudiere , nel 1739., 40. e 41.
Russel dal 1739. fino al 1749.
John Northall nel 1752 // In February 1752 Northall went to Minorca, and thence embarked for Leghorn. Instead of making the usual tour of Italy, he first visited the principal cities of Tuscany, and, after a cursory visit to Rome, went to Naples. Then, after a more lengthened stay in Rome, he went to Loretto, Bologna, Venice, Mantua, Parma, and Modena, and returned to Leghorn, whence he sailed for Genoa. From Genoa he went by sea to Villafranca, and on by land to Marseilles. // A posthumous account of his Italian tour was published in July 1766, entitled Travels through Italy; containing new and curious Observations on that Country. … With the most authentic Account yet published of capital Pieces in Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture that are to be seen in Italy, &c., making up eight volumes.[1] This work has been criticised as closely following the previous travels of J. G. Keysler.
Il Cavalier De la Condamine nel 1754. fr:Charles_Marie_de_La_Condamine#Voyage_en_Italie_(1754-1755) * 1757 : Extraits d'un journal de voyage en Italie, Gallica: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k3555q/f590.pdf
Giovanni Conte di Corké e d'Orrery nel 1754. e 55, John_Boyle,_5th_Earl_of_Cork: Letters from Italy, in the years 1754 and 1755 (1773) Gutenberg: http://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=6256059
Pierre-Jean Grosley nel 1758. / (1718-1785) a French man of letters, local historian, travel writer and observer of social mores in the Age of Enlightenment and a contributor to the Encyclopédie ; Following a year in London in 1765 he produced tart observations on the English style of life, with critical attention to the telling details that revealed for him the English character. His Londres (Neuchâtel 1770), was translated by Thomas Nugent and published in 2 volumes by Lockyer Davis in 1772 under the title A Tour to London; Or New Observations on England and its Inhabitants, by M. Grosley. It was read with pleasure by the English themselves. ; first published mention of that English invention, the sandwich. // Nouveaux Mémoires ou observations sur l'Italie et sur les Italiens, par deux gentilshommes suédois, Londres, 1764, 3 vol. in-12; 1770, 5 vol. in-12 ; Londres, Lausanne, 1770, 3 vol. in-12; 1774, 4 vol. in-12 ; Mémoires sur les campagnes d'Italie de 1745 et 1746, Amsterdam, 1777, in-8° ;
L’Abate Richard nel 1761. e 62. Jean-Claude_Richard (1727-1791) often rather misleadingly known as the "Abbé de Saint-Non"; although intended for the church by his family, he never took more than minor orders. He was a pioneer of the aquatint technique in printmaking. // fr:Jean-Claude_Richard_de_Saint-Non graveur, dessinateur et amateur d’art français. / Il se rendit ensuite en Italie, où il se lia étroitement avec Fragonard et Hubert Robert dont il devint le protecteur et principal commanditaire. Il fit avec eux le voyage de Sicile et de Naples et, à son retour, il entreprit d’en publier la relation (Voyage pittoresque de Naples et de Sicile, chez Jean-Baptiste Delafosse, Paris, 1781-1786, 5 vol. in-fol.), et l’accompagna de 542 planches et vignettes, gravées par les meilleurs artistes du temps (entre autres Charles-Nicolas Cochin, Pierre-Philippe Choffard, Heinrich Guttenberg, Joseph de Longueil) https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k106179z/f3.item et ff
Il Dottore Smollet nel 1763. , 64. e 65.
Sharp nel 1765. e 66.
De-la-Lande nei medesimi anni .
Il Dottor Burney lascio` Londra nel mese di Giugno 1770.
Lady Miller viaggiava nel 1770., e 71.
Ferber nel 1771, e 72.
Guglielmo Young, Scudiere, nel 1772.: del suo viaggio si stamparono soli dieci esemplari in una Stamperia particolare .
Sherlock viaggiava nel 1777. Swinburne dal 1777 al 80.
II Dottor Moore circa lo stesso tempo;
ed il Presidente Du-Paty nel 1785.
- Railways: France: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier:Railway_map_of_France_-_animated_-_fr_-_medium.gif
- Rambles in Germany and Italy, in 1840, 1842, and 1843 is a travel narrative by the British Romantic author Mary Shelley. Issued in 1844, it is her last published work.
- Italian Hours is a book of travel writing by Henry James published in 1909. The book collected essays that James had written over nearly forty years about a country he knew and loved well.
brought back artworks, paintings statuary or ideas returned with objects and ideas
visitng rome inspired historians such as Montesquieu and Gibbon; the Grand Tour political theories of Hobbes
travelled on business Lalande to Galileo; because of exile (Misson from France; any at time of Charles II?), to avoid scandal
the art and architecture was brought back by architects such as Inigo Jones, Colen Campbell .. Palladianism, int Neoclassical into Greek Revival, and so to Gothic
Destinations and routes dependent on wars or other events. Lassels gives 5 routes because X
Covered a long period Peace of Westphalia, Enlightenment, French Rev+Wars of Empire; german and Italin unification. Railways from 1820s.
tourists wrote travel guides ; art guides which formed taste
Category:Travel_guide_books
tour guides from 1800 Itinerario italiano; Murray's Handbooks for Travellers (1836+); Baedeker 1827+
Guide Bleu (1841+) ; A Handbook for Travellers in Spain (1845)
It is the fashion to go to Rome.
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WHATEVER may be the charm of the ruins of Rome, it certainly does not consist in their beauty or grandeur.
In picturesque effect, in venerable majesty, in imposing sublimity, in power over the senses, there is not a mouldering gothic abbey in England that does not far surpass the ruins of Rome. Yet, strange to say, the smallest vestige of its ancient days is ten thousand times more interesting to our hearts than the proudest remains of our own ancestors and our native land ; and we gaze on the naked brick walls and humid vaults which constitute the chief ruins of Rome, with feelings which no other objects on earth can excite. To the artist and antiquary, indeed, these remains being fragments of works of the first era of Roman art, are infinitely more valuable than relics of a more virtuous but ruder age. Yet these remains of imperial magnificence are so mutilated, so shattered, and, indeed, so inconsiderable, that to persons of cultivated taste alone their beauty is apparent ; and we will venture to say that, with the single exception of the Coliseum, the great mass of our countrymen who traverse Europe to see them, and afterwards fill large books with laudatory accounts of them, would, if they beheld them in any unsuspected place, pass by the time-stained columns of the Forum with as little notice as the bedpost-shaped pillars of Regent-street ; and look on the Pantheon with same indifference that they do on St. Martin’s in the Fields. Yet the crowds of our countrymen who do flock to Rome, and the curious medley they make there, are truly amusing. All classes, ages, sexes, and conditions are assembled together ; the first of our nobility with the last of our citizens—the most learned members of our universities, with the most dashing loungers of our streets— the prettiest of our belles, and the bluest of our spinsters, are crossing and justling each other in every corner ; talking, writing, wondering, displaying, and rhapsodizing:—lion-hunting, husband-hunting, time-killing, money-spending, view-taking, and book- making. Through the whole winter, fresh parties of our bewildered countrymen are to be seen running about in every direction with the Itinerario in their hand, confusion in their head, and an antiquary at their elbow. Erudite young ladies stand elucidating antiquities, shivering artists sit on stones sketching them, perilous architects perched on ladders measuring them, learned collegians poring through spectacles decyphering them, flirting fair ones in studied attitudes leaning upon them, hopeful exquisites in dashing equipages driving among them—English, in short, of every kind and description—high and low—wise and foolish— rich and poor—black, brown, and fair, haunt every hallowed spot where Tully spoke and Horace sung. Immediately after the peace, so astonishing was the inundation of Britons, like a second irruption of the Goths, poured down upon Italy, that the poor Italians at first were seriously persuaded that the good people of England, in dread of an impending revolution at home, were hurrying away from their own country as fast as they could drive. Well, indeed, might a stranger marvel what business all these multifarious classes of persons could have in the same place. The spell which draws them here may be in one word explained. It is the fashion to go to Rome. |
- ^ "Italy". The Westminster Review. No. 6, April-June 1825. London: Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy. p. 358. Retrieved 12 March 2021.