The Jacobean Grand Tour: Early Stuart Travellers in Europe
Although the eighteenth century is traditionally seen as the age of the Grand Tour, it was in fact the continental travel of Jacobean noblemen which really constituted the beginning of the Tour as an institutionalized phenomenon. James I's peace treaty with Spain in 1604 rendered travel to Catholic Europe both safer and more respectable than it had been under the Tudors and opened up the continent to a new generation of aristocratic explorers, enquirers and adventurers. This book examines the political and cultural significance of the encounters that resulted, focusing in particular on two of England's greatest, and newly united, families: the Cecils and the Howards. It also considers the ways in which Protestants and Catholics experienced the aesthetic and intellectual stimulus of European travel and how the cultural experiences of the travellers formed the essential ingredients in what became the Grand Tour.
Botanical relics of a lost landscape: herborising ‘upon the Cliffs about the Pharos’ in Genoa, March 1664
Abstract This paper uses approaches derived from historical ecology to show how knowledge can be gained about the historical and cultural value of neglected urban landscapes. We study the area around Genoa’s lighthouse and consider the long-term survival of individual plant species and some implications for landscape conservation. We examine topographical representations over the last 500 years to establish the landscape context of the lighthouse. We then analyse the records of plants collected by two English naturalists of the seventeenth century, John Ray and Francis Willughby, and demonstrate how the plants were identified and documented. We survey the current vegetation to establish whether any species identified in 1664 still grow at the site. This exploration of botanical ancestry at a local scale makes it possible to demonstrate cultural–historical values of the lighthouse rocks and their vegetation which should be considered as part of the cultural heritage of the city of Genoa.
Pompeo Batoni: Prince of Painters in Eighteenth-Century Rome
Pompeo Batoni (1708-1787) was the most celebrated painter in Rome in his day. For nearly half a century, he recorded the visits of international travellers on the Grand Tour, and these portraits remain among the most memorable artistic accomplishments of the period. His history, religious, and mythological paintings were also highly prized by great patrons and collectors in Britain and on the Continent. This book, published in celebration of the tercentenary of Batoni's birth, offers a vivid appreciation of his work. More than 150 full-colour illustrations represent the finest examples of his paintings from public and private collections in Europe and the United States. Some of these works are newly discovered and some have never before been on public display. A series of illuminating essays explores Batoni's art, his various patrons, his working methods and techniques, his final years, and his historiography and critical reception.