Travellers in Europe – Private Records of Journeys by the Great and Forgotten – From Horace to Pepys –

“Horace travelling with his friends Virgil and Maecenas from Rome to Brindisi; the Venetian ambassador Andrea Trevisano on his way to the court of Henry VII in London; Albrecht Dürer travelling (with his wife and his maid Susan) to the Netherlands; Montaigne visiting Italy in search of health, Bulstrode Whitelocke, entrusted with a mission by Cromwell to Queen Christina, visiting Sweden: what have they in common? They all made their journeys in the days before the private coach had turned travel (and travel-writing) into an industry – and they were all keenly observant diarists.

In this volume the author selects twenty-two European travellers and, letting them speak so far as possible in their own words, achieves the full impact of an eye-witness report as he builds up a coherent picture of travel at a period when the world, even the microcosm of Europe, was still wide, and strange lands were indeed marvellous to the visiting observer. In the inimitable style which has won him thousands of readers, J.G Links, author of Venice for Pleasure, here threads together the observations of his travellers into what is surely one of the most engaging works of social history ever written.

The tales are generously illustrated, for the most part with pictures that the travellers themselves drew, used, or at any rate knew.”