Francis Mortoft: His Book Being His Travels Through France and Italy, 1658-1659

Date

1925

Identifier

Journals G161 H2 Ser. 2 no. 57

Type

Publisher

London: Printed for the Hakluyt Society

Abstract

After the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, travelling as a pilgrim went out of fashion, and the rise in humanist studies saw the focus turn to Italy. Touring the Continent in the 16th and 17th centuries developed as a way for sons of elite families and wealthy merchants to broaden their minds and facilitate their learning. It was also a way of removing them in times of trouble, like that of the violent Interregnum of the mid-17th century. Francis Mortoft was one such ‘Interregnum tourist’. Not much is known of the traveller, but he left behind ‘an honest and straightforward narrative of a typical Grand Tour’.

Files

Cab 16 mortofttext2.jpg

Citation

Edited by Malcolm Letts, “Francis Mortoft: His Book Being His Travels Through France and Italy, 1658-1659,” ourheritage.ac.nz | OUR Heritage, accessed March 19, 2024, https://otago.ourheritage.ac.nz/items/show/10477.