Rome in the Footsteps of an XVIIIth Century Traveller

This section contains pages with excerpts from books written by British and American Travellers describing their stay in Rome. It mainly focuses on those written before 1750; after that year a visit to the monuments of Rome became a popular "rite of passage" for many young European noblemen in their Grand Tour. Some of the books which were selected for this section provide a direct account of ceremonies and events their authors attended.

Authors and Books

Gregory Martin's "Roma Sancta", a description of Christian Rome in 1581 A Roman Catholic biblical scholar is best known as principal translator of the Latin Vulgate into English (Douai-Reims Bible). The objective of Roma Sancta (which was published only in the 1960s) was clearly spelt out in this sentence of its preface: Rome in very deede is old many wayes, old fayth, old charitie, old devotion, old Churches, old Relikes, old Sainctes. In al these so old verie neere as in Christianitie it self which Peter and Paule taught them. And this is one principal pleasure among the rest which they take that come to this Citie, and that thou (Gentle Reader) mayst take of this booke, to se how Rome after so many yeres & so great alterations in a great part of the world besides, is notwithstanding alwayes like it self. Fynes Moryson's An Itinerary: Containing His Ten Years Travel .. in Italy in 1594 He was a brave young man who visited Rome when heretics were burned at the stake: Priests came to take our names in our lodging, and when wee demaunded the cause, they told us, that it was to no other end, but to know if any received not the Communion at that holy time, which when we heard, wee needed no spurres to make haste from Rome into the state of Florence. John Evelyn's Diary and Correspondence related to his stay in Rome in 1644 He visited Rome shortly after the death of Pope Urban VIII and he attended the coronation ceremony of Pope Innocent X. He enthusiastically described some works by Bernini: Under the cupola, and in the centre of the church, stands the high altar (..) with that stupendous canopy of Corinthian brass; (..) it consists of four wreathed columns, partly channelled and encircled with vines, on which hang little puti, birds and bees, sustaining a baldacchina, of the same metal. The four columns weigh an hundred and ten thousand pounds, all over richly gilt; this, with the pedestals, crown, and statues about it, form a thing of that art, vastness, and magnificence, as is beyond all that man's industry has produced of the kind; it is the work of Bernini, a Florentine sculptor, architect, painter, and poet. Francis Mortoft's Journal of his travels in France and Italy in 1659 He was fond of music and attended many concerts in Roman palaces and churches: We went to A little Church called the Auditory of Marcel (..) where wee heard Musicke. This place being appointed for the purpose, there being every Friday in the lent a Consort of the best voyces in Rome at this place. I thinke there was in this little Church all the strangers about Rome. (..) Musicke began with some a douzen voyces. A Lute, Violin and Organs, which sounded most sweetly, especially the Lute and Violin was so rare, that being once out of Rome it must never be expected to heare the like againe. John Ray's Observations (..) made in a journey through part of (..) Italy in 1663. John Ray (1627-1705) was one of the most travelled British naturalists of the XVIIth century. His travels covered most of the British Isles and continued through Europe as far south as the islands of Sicily and Malta; he visited Rome in 1663. It is the number of plants, insects and animals that he had personally studied in the field, together with his foundation of field studies and behavioural ecology across the natural world, that makes his work so remarkable. In Italy he paid more attention to the marketplaces than to the antiquities: The Italians are very temperate in their diet, eating a great deal of sallet (salade, vegetables) and but little flesh. Their wine they drink well diluted with water, and seldom to any excess. We saw only one Italian drunk by the space of a year and half that we Sojourned in Italy. Richard Lassels' The Voyage of Italy, or a Compleat Journey through Italy in ca 1668 He was a Roman Catholic priest and the tutor of several English noblemen. His book is a detailed account of the monuments of Rome and provides some information on the functioning of brotherhoods and other religious bodies: Rome hath instituted a pious Confraternity called, La Compagnia dei Morti, whose office is to bury the Dead, and to visit those that are Condemned, and by praying with them, exhorting them, and accompanying them to the Execution, help them to dye Penitently, and bury them being Dead and Pray for their Souls being Buried. Joseph Addison's Remarks on several parts of Italy, in the years 1701, 1702, 1703 He attracted the attention of London's literary circles by translating Virgil's Georgics at the age of 22. He was given a pension to travel through Europe in view of a diplomatic career. He described the excavations which were made in Rome to find ancient statues: There are undertakers in Rome who often purchase the digging of fields, gardens, or vineyards, where they find any likelihood of succeeding, and some have been known to arrive at great estates by it. They pay according to the dimensions of the surface they are to break up, and after having made essays into it, as they do for coal in England they rake into the most promising parts of it, though they often find, to their disappointment, that others have been before hand with them. Jonathan and Jonathan Richardson's Account of Some of the Statues, etc. in Italy - 1722 The book is based on a travel to Italy made by Jonathan Richardson the Younger in 1721, but the remarks are supported by the competence of Jonathan Richardson the Elder, his father and a leading painter in London. The book is a learned description of ancient statues (with many references to books written by Italian authors), as well as of modern statues: St. Thomas of Villa Nova giving Alms to a Woman, in Marble. The Woman is the best Modern Statue I ever saw; she is young, and extremely beautiful; an Air of a Head, Great, but wonderfully Gentile, and a Turn of the Neck I think as beautiful as that of the Venus of of Medicis. Edward Wright's Observations made in France, Italy &c. in the years 1720, 1721 and 1722. Wright is best known as the companion of George Parker (1694-1764), the future astronomer. Parker's journey to Italy from 1719 to 1722 was similar to the tours of many other XVIIIth century gentlemen. Wright had already travelled in Italy and had a reputation among English travellers as an artist. He turned the letters written home into a book which appeared in 1730. It is only in part a travel account with specific references to events which occurred during the journey; he was in Rome during the conclave of 1721: The new Pope was proclaim'd the 8th of May by Cardinal Panfilio, who came to the Loggia della Benedizione, over the noble Portico which is at the Entrance into S. Peter's Church, there with a thundering Voice he spoke as follows: (..) "I bring you Tidings of great Joy; we have a Pope, the most Reverend Father and Lord Michael Angelo, Priest of the holy Roman Church, Cardinal de Conti (..) who has taken upon him the Name of Innocent XIII. Excerpts from John Dyer's The Ruins of Rome written in 1740 He was a pupil of Jonathan Richardson the Elder as he started his career as a painter. He visited Rome in 1724: his interests were focused only on its ancient monuments, as he profoundly despised all aspects of Catholicism. Echoes of his poem on Rome can be noticed in Lord Byron's works: Amid the towery ruins, huge, supreme, / The enormous amphitheatre behold, / Mountainous pile! o'er whose capacious womb / Pours the broad firmament its varied light. Thomas Gray's Letters to family and friends from France and Italy in 1739-1741 He travelled with Sir Horace Walpole. In 1775 William Mason a friend, executor, and biographer of Thomas Gray who died in 1771, published a selection of his letters because the elegant ease of his epistolary style has a charm in it for all readers of true taste. (..) They will perceive, that as these letters were written without even the most distant view of publication, they are essentially different in their manner of description from any others that have either preceded or followed them; add to this, that they are interspersed occasionally with some exquisitely finished pieces of Latin poetry, which he composed on the spot for the entertainment of his friend. James Boswell's Letters on the Grand Tour in 1765 He described Rome and his stay there in letters to friends, including Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Although he greatly expanded in describing all the monuments of Rome, the most interesting passages are related to some very private experiences (he was twenty-four): I must admit that in the midst of my Roman studies I indulged in sensual relaxations. I sallied forth of an evening like an imperious lion, and I had a little French painter, a young academician, always vain, always alert, always gay, who served as my jackal. I remembered the rakish deeds of Horace and other amorous Roman poets, and I thought that one might well allow one's self a little indulgence in a city where there are prostitutes licensed by the Cardinal Vicar. Tobias Smollett's Travels through France and Italy in 1765 He travelled with his wife at the age of forty-four to react to the loss of their only daughter. He described in detail the monuments of Rome, but he did not add much to what he read on guidebooks including that of Vasi. Some passages are interesting examples of a supercilious attitude towards Italy: The popes will do well to avoid misunderstandings with the maritime protestant states, especially the English, who being masters of the Mediterranean, and in possession of Minorca, have it in their power at all times, to land a body of troops within four leagues of Rome, and to take the city, without opposition. John Moore's View of Society and Manners in Italy (in 1775) He passed some months in Italy, as medical attendant and travelling companion to the 8th Duke of Hamilton and published an account of the country upon his return home. His position as companion to the Duke gave him access to a higher class of society than he could have reached as a man of letters, or a physician: A regular course with an Antiquarian, generally takes up about six weeks; employing three hours a-day, you may, in that time, visit all the churches, palaces, villas, and ruins, worth seeing, in or near Rome. But after having made this course, (..) if you do not visit the most interesting again, and again, and reflect on them at more leisure, your labour will be of little use; for the objects are so various, and those you see on one day, so apt to be effaced by, or confounded with, those you behold on another, that you must carry away a very faint and indistinct recollection of any. John Chetwood Eustace's Classical Tour of Italy in 1802 (publ. 1813) Eustace was a Catholic priest, who went to Italy in 1802, as travelling companion to two young gentlemen of fortune, and published an account of his tour under the title of "A Classical Tour through Italy"' He was a man of considerable learning, after the English school, and was especially well acquainted with the authors of Rome, both in prose and verse. In the preface to the book he pointed out: The epithet Classical sufficiently points out its peculiar character, which is to trace the resemblance between Modern and Ancient Italy, and to take for guides and companions in the beginning of the nineteenth century, the writers that preceded or adorned the first. Conformably to that character, the Author may be allowed to dwell with complacency on the incidents of ancient history, to admit every poetical recollection, and to claim indulgence, if in describing objects so often alluded to by the Latin writers, he should frequently borrow their expressions. Joseph Forsyth's Remarks on Antiquities, Arts, and Letters in Italy in 1802-1803 He wanted to see Rome and he thought the 1801 Peace of Amiens would last. He visited Rome at a very critical period when the city was the capital of a puppet-state under French hegemony. On his way back home he was arrested by the French and placed under house arrest as an enemy alien until Napoleon's fall: Pius VI had engaged to purchase peace of the French; but the present Cardinal Albani persuaded him to retract, and thus brought their vengeance on all his family. The blow was indeed severe. The spoils of this villa became a magnificent supplement to those of the Vatican and Capitol. Two hundred and ninety-four pieces of ancient sculpture were sent hence to Paris, or lay in cases at Ripagrande ready to be shipped. John Cam Hobhouse's Dissertations on the Ruins of Rome in 1816 A friend of Lord Byron, with whom he often travelled, he wrote his essay as part of a historical illustration of the Fourth Canto of Childe Harold. His book is not a travel account, but it contains some interesting notes on the excavations which were carried out by the French and by Pope Pius VII in addition to some remarks on the City: Your walks in the Palatine ruins, if it be one of the many days when the labourers do not work, will be undisturbed, unless you startle a fox in breaking through the brambles in the corridores, or burst unawares through the hole of some shivered fragments into one of the half buried chambers which the peasants have blocked up to serve as stalls for their jackasses, or as huts for those who watch the gardens. Henry Matthews' Diary of an Invalid (in 1817-1818) His tour, which embraced also Portugal, Switzerland, and France, was taken in pursuit of health. The book was not meant to be a guide to Rome because to this purpose he recommended As a guide to Rome, Vasi's book is worth all the books of travels put together. It is all that it professes to be, and no more, - a mere catalogue; but it is comprehensive and accurate. His Diary contains many original comments on what he saw including some which are due to his health: St. Peter's is a spectacle that never tires; - you may visit it every day, and always find something new to admire. Then, - its temperature is delightful; - after starving in the cold and comfortless galleries of the Vatican, it is a luxury indeed to enjoy the mild and genial air in the interior of St. Peter's; and I am told, the church is as pleasantly cool in summer, as it is comfortably warm in winter. Anna Jameson's Diary of an Ennuyée (in 1821-1822) A fictional account of the memoirs of a young lady, who had died of a broken heart while travelling on the Continent. The writer was actually a young governess who in 1821-1822 accompanied a pupil on a European tour. The book focuses on ancient ruins and paintings and ignores architecture and sculpture: Our visit to the Barberini Palace to-day was solely to view the famous portrait of Beatrice Cenci. (..) In spite of the innumerable copies and prints I have seen, I was more struck than I can express by the dying beauty of the Cenci. In the face the expression of heart-sinking anguish and terror is just not too strong, leaving the loveliness of the countenance unimpaired; and there is a woe-begone negligence in the streaming hair and loose drapery which adds to its deep pathos. Sir Charles Fergusson's Notes of a Journey Through Italy in 1824-1825 This page is published by courtesy of Mr. Martin Cotter and the Fergusson family. Charles Fergusson Dalrymple, 5th Baronet of Kilkerran, was born in Scotland in 1800. He studied as a lawyer, practicing at the Scottish bar until 1838. He was a religious man, contributing to the general assembly of the Church of Scotland, and he established at his own expense churches at several parishes in Scotland. He was keenly interested in art and architecture, interests which led him to undertake tours of Northern Europe in 1824, and Italy & Switzerland in 1825. Whilst on those journeys Sir Charles maintained daily journals, a few of which still survive. The Fergusson family maintain a strong interest in their ancestry, and were happy to allow extracts from these journals to be published. His account of Rome is interesting chiefly because it touches on the ceremonies which were held for the 1825 Jubilee and because it describes institutions which were ignored by other travellers, e.g. a large orphanage, a prison and a madhouse. William Hazlitt's Notes of a Journey Through France and Italy in 1824-1825 Hazlitt (1778 - 1830) was an essayist, drama and literary critic, painter, art critic, social commentator, and philosopher. His notes were first written for a newspaper and they were not aimed at providing his readers with an exhaustive illustration of the locations he visited: There is little of history or antiquities or statistics; nor do I regret the want of them, as it may be abundantly supplied from other sources. The only thing I could have wished to expatiate upon more at large is the manners of the country: but to do justice to this, a greater length of time and a more intimate acquaintance with society and the language would be necessary. (..) Rome is great only in ruins: the Coliseum, the Pantheon, the Arch of Constantino fully answered my expectations. Samuel Roger's Italy, a poem published in 1830 with illustrations by J. M. William Turner One of the most celebrated English poets of his lifetime, Rogers published in 1830 a luxury edition of his poem "Italy", which was based on a travel made in 1814. Parts of it were written in prose. The book sold very well. I love to wander up and down before the tomb of Caius Cestius. The Protestant burial-ground is there; and most of the little monuments are erected to the young; young-men of promise, cut off when on their travels, full of enthusiasm, full of enjoyment; brides, in the bloom of their beauty, on their first journey; or children borne from home in search of health. (..) It is a quiet and sheltered nook, covered in the winter with violets; and the Pyramid, that over-shadows it, gives it a classical and singularly solemn air. Hans Christian Andersen's The Improvisatore - 1834 (Engl. translation 1845) The Danish writer is best known for his fairy tales but in 1834 he achieved international fame by writing The Improvisatore, a semi autobiographical novel which tells the story of a Roman boy from a poor background who achieves success through his talent for improvisation. Andersen entered into the spirit of the life of the people, and has reflected all back to us with the most beautiful colouring in his Improvisatore (from the English preface to the book). We descended, and now I saw round about me skulls upon skulls, so placed one upon another that they formed walls, and therewith several chapels. In these were regular niches, in which were seated perfect skeletons of the most distinguished of the monks, enveloped in their brown cowls, their cords round their waists, and with a breviary or a withered bunch of flowers in their bands. (..) I clung fast to the monk, who whispered a prayer, and then said to me, - "Here also I shall some time sleep; wilt thou thus visit me? " William Gardiner - Sights in Italy - 1847 He was an English composer who is best known for his hymns and for having enthusiastically supported and made known the works of Ludwig van Beethoven. He visited Rome in November 1846 - January 1847 and he attended many of the ceremonies which were held in that period. Because of his interest in sacred music he visited more churches than other travellers: The number of churches which you pass in a day, walking through Rome, is incredible. You cannot go a street's length without passing many; besides other religious houses, monasteries, and convents. They are always open, and therefore can be visited with facility at all times, and without disturbing the service. The variety of their structure, the marbles, the tombs, the statues, and pictures are endless. George Stillman Hillard's Six Months in Italy in 1847-1848 A lawyer and politician from Boston he visited Italy when he was forty. His description of the monuments of Rome shows that in some instances he departed from the recommended itinerary; it is likely that Mark Twain built upon his travel account: Villa Magliana, a castellated building of somewhat striking aspect, with battlemented walls and a tower. (..) This villa, once the luxurious retreat of popes, is fallen from its high estate, and is no more than a humble farm-house. Its spacious rooms were filled with grain and other agricultural produce. Men in the garb of common laborers were lounging about; the courtyard was littered with straw and filth; and barn-door fowls were pecking and scratching around the fountain.

Read What Dante Saw.
Read What Goethe Saw.
Read What Lord Byron Saw.
Read What Charles Dickens Saw.
Read What Henry James Saw.
Read What Mark Twain Saw.
Read What William Dean Howells Saw.
Read Dan Brown's Spaghetti Bolognaise (excerpts from Angels and Demons).