English impressions of Venice up to the early seventeenth century: a documentary study
Abstract
The first Englishmen to write about the city-state
of Venice were the pilgrims passing through on their way to
the Holy Land. Their impressions are recorded in the travel diaries
and collections of advice for prospective fellow pilgrims
between the early fourteenth and early sixteenth
centuries, the most substantial being those of William Wey,
Sir Richard Guylforde and Sir Richard Torkington, who visited
Venice in 1458 and '62, 1506, and 1517 respectively. In the
1540s arrived the men who saw Venice as part of the new Europe--Andrew Borde and William Thomas. Thomas's study of the
Venetian state emphasized the efficiency of its
administration, seeing it as an example of constructive
government, where effective organisation for the common good
led directly to national stability and prosperity. The mid-sixteenth
century saw the beginnings of Venice as a tourist
centre; the visitors who came between 1550 and the end of the
century described the sights and the people, the traditions
and way of life. Fynes Moryson's extensive account details
what could be seen and learned in the city by an observant and
enquiring visitor.
In addition to information available in first-hand
accounts of Venice, much could be learned from the work of the
late sixteenth-century English translators. Linguistic,
cultural, geographical, historical and literary translations
yielded further knowledge and, more importantly, new
perspectives, Venice being seen through the eyes of Italians
and, through Lewkenor's comprehensive work, The Commonwealth
and Government of Venice, of Venetians themselves.
Finally, to assess the general impressions of
Venice and the Venetians, we consider the literature of the
turn of the sixteenth-seventeenth century; what, and how
much, of the three-hundred year accumulation of knowledge of
the city and people of Venice had most caught the attention
and imagination of the English mind, and how close was the
relationship between the popular impression and the
documentary information from which it had largely developed.
Type
Thesis, PhD Doctor of Philosophy
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