The organized traveller: scientific instructions for geological travels in Italy and Europe during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

Abstract

AbstractThe history of geological travels usually focuses on the study of individuals or groups of travellers, but it should also consider in detail some essential aspects of the meaning of geological travel, such as the beginnings of this particular kind of scientific travel, the emergence of a ‘conscious’ geological traveller, the concept of ‘field’ and fieldwork for a geologist and finally the first attempts to codify the style and the method of a geological travel. The aim of this paper is to look at possible answers to some of these questions by presenting a short outline, based on some significant examples in the historical development of a particular kind of scientific literature still little known and open to further investigation: the instructions for geological travellers, including writing by those people, generally scientists, who wanted to organize their experiences to instruct others on how to undertake geological observations methodically. From the early eighteenth century, these texts may be found within private diaries or official reports, in journals or periodicals, scholarly monographs or textbooks, and also as articles, pamphlets, booklets or even books on their own, especially in the late nineteenth century.