The Grand Tour has emerged as a subject of importance for those interested in exploring the historic connections between nations and their intellectual and artistic production. Although traditionally associated with the 18th century, when it became de rigueur for wealthy Englishmen to complete their education on the continent, the Grand Tour is here investigated in a wider context, from the decline of the Roman Empire to recent times.

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...