The Grand Tour was a rite-of-passage for many aristocratic and wealthy young men of the eighteenth century: a phenomenon which shaped the creative and intellectual sensibilities of some of the eighteenth century’s greatest artists, writers and thinkers. These accounts of the English abroad, c1550-1850, highlight the influence of continental travel on British art, architecture, urban planning, literature and philosophy.
This new database includes reproductions of manuscripts and published travel writing. These can be viewed as facsimilies of the original texts together with searchable text. There is also a collection of photographs of the locations, artworks, and brief biographies of six thousand travellers.
There is a good search engine for the full-text, some indexes that can be browsed (title, author, date, publication type), and the ability to export references into EndNote. The ability to switch between the original text and transcripts, where available, is very useful.
This database is available on campus only, until 6 July. During this trial period, PDF downloads are not available.