A Grand Tour Journal 1820-1822: The Awakening of the Man

Hardback

Main Details

Title A Grand Tour Journal 1820-1822: The Awakening of the Man
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Edward Stanley
Edited by Angus Hawkins
Physical Properties
Format:Hardback
Pages:224
Dimensions(mm): Height 234,Width 156
Category/GenreRenaissance art
Art and design styles - Classicism
ISBN/Barcode 9781781558904
Audience
General
Illustrations 32 colour illustrations, 1 map

Publishing Details

Publisher Fonthill Media Ltd
Imprint Fonthill Media Ltd
NZ Release Date 15 March 2023
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

In December 1820, at twenty-one years old, Edward Geoffrey Stanley, the future 14th earl of Derby and three-times prime minister, began an extensive tour of continental Europe. By the time of his return to England twenty months later, he had visited many of the foremost centres for art and culture in Europe, and mostly in Italy. In his travel diaries he recorded his intensive social life, his visits to historical sites, his viewings of art collections, his comments on architecture, his admiration of landscapes and his impressions of foreign societies. He was energetic, enthusiastic and discerning: the bridge of Augustus in Umbria gave him 'a stupendous idea of Roman grandeur'; the charm of the towns crowning the Tuscan hills struck him with the same delight that he felt when gazing at one of Poussin's paintings; the waterfall at Terni, which dropped 370 feet into an abyss of spray, was 'awfully magnificent'; while the ceremonies of the Italian Catholic Church he judged to be a blend of mummery, superstition and bigotry. Sights and experiences like these influenced him for the rest of his life. This precious collection of diaries, found only recently and published here for the first time, reveal Edward Stanley to have been a young man of diligence, courage and decisiveness: a future leader with a conspicuous and burgeoning sense of political and social justice. It was these characteristics, seen in early development within these pages, that shaped the man and the extraordinary career to come.

Author Biography

Edward Geoffrey Stanley (1799-1869), later Lord Stanley and the 14th earl of Derby, was the first British statesman to become prime minister three times and remains the longest serving party leader in modern British politics. A complex, astute and influential figure, he dominated the political scene during the mid-nineteenth century. Angus Hawkins (1953-2020) was a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and director of the Research Centre in Victorian Political Culture at Keble College, University of Oxford. Professor Hawkins wrote an acclaimed two-volume biography of Edward Geoffrey Stanley, The Forgotten Prime Minister, published by Oxford University Press in 2007 and 2008.