AN ITINERARY WRITTEN BY FYNES MORYSON GENT. First in the Latine Tongue, and Then Translated by Him Into English: Containing His Ten Years Travel Through the Twelve Dominions of Germany, Bohmerland, Switzerland, Netherland, Denmarke, Poland, Italy, Turky, France, England, Scotland and Ireland. Divided into III parts.
AN ITINERARY WRITTEN BY FYNES MORYSON GENT. First in the Latine Tongue, and Then Translated by Him Into English: Containing His Ten Years Travel Through the Twelve Dominions of Germany, Bohmerland, Switzerland, Netherland, Denmarke, Poland, Italy, Turky, France, England, Scotland and Ireland. Divided into III parts.
AN ITINERARY WRITTEN BY FYNES MORYSON GENT. First in the Latine Tongue, and Then Translated by Him Into English: Containing His Ten Years Travel Through the Twelve Dominions of Germany, Bohmerland, Switzerland, Netherland, Denmarke, Poland, Italy, Turky, France, England, Scotland and Ireland. Divided into III parts.
AN ITINERARY WRITTEN BY FYNES MORYSON GENT. First in the Latine Tongue, and Then Translated by Him Into English: Containing His Ten Years Travel Through the Twelve Dominions of Germany, Bohmerland, Switzerland, Netherland, Denmarke, Poland, Italy, Turky, France, England, Scotland and Ireland. Divided into III parts.
AN ITINERARY WRITTEN BY FYNES MORYSON GENT. First in the Latine Tongue, and Then Translated by Him Into English: Containing His Ten Years Travel Through the Twelve Dominions of Germany, Bohmerland, Switzerland, Netherland, Denmarke, Poland, Italy, Turky, France, England, Scotland and Ireland. Divided into III parts.

AN ITINERARY WRITTEN BY FYNES MORYSON GENT. First in the Latine Tongue, and Then Translated by Him Into English: Containing His Ten Years Travel Through the Twelve Dominions of Germany, Bohmerland, Switzerland, Netherland, Denmarke, Poland, Italy, Turky, France, England, Scotland and Ireland. Divided into III parts.

(London: John Beale, 1617).

SCARCE FIRST EDITION REGARDED AS ONE OF THE MOST OUTSTANDING WORKS OF ITS KIND, ONE OF THE GREATEST CONTEMPORARY EUROPEAN ACCOUNTS OF ITS PERIOD AND  A VALUABLE AND MUCH ESTEEMED WORK. - Lowndes.
Moryson,1566-1630, was one of the period s most accomplished travellers. "'from his tender youth, he had a great desire to see foreign countries', and in 1589 he obtained a license to travel... On 1 May 1591 he took ship at Leigh, near Southend, and for the greater part of the six years following wandered about Europe. At the end of 1591 he reached Prague, where he dreamt of his father's death on the day of the event. The news was confirmed at Nuremberg, and after a year's leisurely tour through Germany he retraced his steps to the Low Countries in order to dispose of his modest patrimony. On the 7th of January, 1593, he entered himself as a student at Leyden University. He subsequently passed through Denmark and Poland to Vienna, and thence by way of Pontena and Chiusa into Italy in October 1593.
After visiting Naples, he thoroughly explored Rome, where he paid visits to Cardinals Allen and Bellarmine. The former gave him every facility for viewing the antiquities. The cities of North Italy occupied him from April 1594 to the beginning of 1595. In the early spring of 1595 he had an interview with Theodore Beza at Geneva, and journeying hurriedly through France, caught a glimpse of Henri IV at Fontainebleau, and landed at Dover on the 13th of May in 1595. 0n the 8th of December of the same year Moryson started on a second journey, setting sail for Flushing. A younger brother, Henry, bore him company. Passing through Germany to Venice, they went, at the end of April 1596, by sea to Joppa, spent the first fortnight of June at Jerusalem, and thence went by Tripoli and Aleppo to Antioch. At Beilan, a neighboring village, Henry Moryson died on the 4th of July in 1596 at the age of 27 years.
Fynes afterwards made for Constantinople, where the English ambassador, Edward Barton [, hospitably entertained him. He finally reached London by way of Venice and Stade on the 10th of July,1597.
In April 1598 Moryson visited Scotland, but soon came home, and spent some time in the autumn with his sisters, Faith Mussendyne and Jane, wife of George Allington, of the pipe office. At the time his brother Richard was taking an active part in the government of Ireland, and strongly recommended him to seek employment there. On the 13th he reached Dundalk, where his brother was governor; on the same day George Cranmer, the chief secretary of Sir Charles Blount, the lord-deputy, was killed at Carlingford, and Moryson was at once appointed to his place. He found his new master all that he could wish, aided him in his efforts to suppress Tyrone's rebellion, and remained through life a devoted admirer.
After Lord Devonshire's death in 1606, Moryson had spent three years in making an abstract of the history of the twelve countries which he had visited, but his manuscript proved so bulky that with a consideration rare in authors he destroyed it, and turned his attention to a briefer record of his experiences of travel.
The first part supplies a journal of his travels through Europe, Scotland, and Ireland, with plans of the chief cities, 'the rates of hiring coaches and horses from place to place with each day's expenses for diet, horse-meat, and the like.
The second part is a valuable history of Tyrone's rebellion, with documents of state.
The third part consists of essays on travel, geography, and national costume, character, religion, and constitutional practice.
Moryson is a sober and truthful writer. He delights in statistics respecting the mileage of his daily journeys and the varieties in the values of the coins he encountered. His descriptions of the inns in which he lodged, of the costume and the food of the countries visited, render his work invaluable to the social historian." -DNB.
STC 18205 (description of pts. in Roman). Alden 617/109  .a Spaniard is mentioned who, having contracted syphilis, went to America to learn its cure  from those who first infected the Spaniards therewith ; tobacco is also mentioned . Lowndes 1621  A valuable and much esteemed work . Blackmer 1159. Item #21804

3 parts bound as one. FIRST EDITION. VERY SCARCE. Handsomely illustrated with 8 original woodcut engravings of Venice, Naples, Rome, Genoa, Paris, Constantinople, Jerusalem and the plan of a church. Also with extensive tables of coins, histories, genealogies, etc. Large and beautiful woodcut initials throughout along with elaborate engraved head and tail pieces. Folio, handsomely bound in full contemporary style calf, covers ruled in blind and blind paneled in center, spine with blind ruled raised bands, original gilt lettered red morocco lettering label. [14], 295, 301, 292 pp. Without blanks ¶1 and eeee8 as is usual. A handsome and well preserved copy of this valuable work. The binding is sturdy and strong and handsome, internally crisp and unwashed and unpressed. Some re-margining accomplished at the gutter areas of some initial leaves and to the outer edges of some leaves at the end of the volume.

See all items by

Price: $6,500.00