Gibbon, Edward, 1737-1794; Historians -- Great Britain -- Biography
Itineraries of Wesseling's Antoninus, and the coasting Voyage of
Rutilius Numatianus; and I studied two kindred subjects in the
Measures Itineraires of d'Anville, and the copious work of Bergier,
Histoire des grands Chemins de I'Empire Romain. From these
materials I formed a table of roads and distances reduced to our
English measure; filled a folio common-place book with my
collections and remarks on the geography of Italy; and inserted in
my journal many long and learned notes on the insulae and
populousness of Rome, the social war, the passage of the Alps by
Hannibal, &c. 3. After glancing my eye over Addison's agreeable
dialogues, I more seriously read the great work of Ezechiel Spanheim
de Praestantia et Usu Numismatum, and applied with him the medals of
the kings and emperors, the families and colonies, to the
illustration of ancient history. And thus was I armed for my
Italian journey.
I shall advance with rapid brevity in the narrative of this tour, in
which somewhat more than a year (April 1764-May 1765) was agreeably
employed. Content with tracing my line of march, and slightly
touching on my personal feelings, I shall waive the minute
investigation of the scenes which have been viewed by thousands, and
described by hundreds, of our modern travellers. ROME is the great
object of our pilgrimage: and 1st, the journey; 2d, the residence;
and 3d, the return; will form the most proper and perspicuous
division. 1. I climbed Mount Cenis, and descended into the plain of
Piedmont, not on the back of an elephant, but on a light osier seat,
in the hands of the dextrous and intrepid chairmen of the Alps. The
architecture and government of Turin presented the same aspect of
tame and tiresome uniformity: but the court was regulated with
decent and splendid oeconomy; and I was introduced to his Sardinian
majesty Charles Emanuel, who, after the incomparable Frederic, held
the second rank (proximus longo tamen intervallo) among the kings of
Europe. The size and populousness of Milan could not surprise an
inhabitant of London: but the fancy is amused by a visit to the
Boromean Islands, an enchanted palace, a work of the fairies in the
midst of a lake encompassed with mountains, and far removed from the
haunts of men. I was less amused by the marble palaces of Genoa,
than by the recent memorials of her deliverance (in December 1746)
from the Austrian tyranny; and I took a military survey of every
scene of action within the inclosure of her double walls. My steps
were detained at Parma and Modena, by the precious relics of the
Farnese and Este collections: but, alas! the far greater part had
been already transported, by inheritance or purchase, to Naples and
Dresden. By the road of Bologna and the Apennine I at last reached
Florence, where I reposed from June to September, during the heat of
the summer months. In the Gallery, and especially in the Tribune, I
first acknowledged, at the feet of the Venus of Medicis, that the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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