Turin and the British in the Age of the Grand Tour, ed. Paola Bianchi and Karin Wolfe

Abstract

This conference volume focuses on Turin in the Age of the Grand Tour, roughly from the late sixteenth to the late eighteenth centuries, thereby contributing to the growing interest in the deconstruction of the Grand Tour as a coherent, and one-directional, phenomenon. As the title suggests, this publication does not view Turin solely as the Italian stage for British experiences: it considers the relationship to be decidedly reciprocal, with Turin not only as destination for the British but as starting-point for the Turinese, ‘the grand tour “all’inverso”’ (p. 2). The concept of the Tour itself serves as the introduction to the time-frame as well as the general mindset of travel and exchange, and the individual chapter studies go far beyond a mere tracing of travellers and their impressions and narratives. Part I serves to introduce the political backdrop and the close connections between the Stuarts and the Savoy Duchy; Part...