The Travel Diary of Robert Bargrave Levant Merchant (1647-1656). Edited by MICHAEL G. BRENNAN 1999. pp. xix + 288. 17 illustrations. ISBN 0 904180 63 8.
The Travel Diary of Robert Bargrave Levant Merchant
(1647-1656).
Edited by
MICHAEL G. BRENNAN
1999. pp. xix + 288. 17 illustrations. ISBN 0 904180 63 8.
Full transcript of a manuscript journal in the Bodleian Library detailing four separate journeys, two between Constantinople and England, by sea and overland, one to Spain and Venice and one from Venice to England. With an introduction and assessment of the importance of the journal.
Published by the Hakluyt Society. Click on the link for details of this book and a full bibliography of the Hakluyt Society's publications.
This is the first fully annotated old-spelling edition of the entire text of the autograph English journal of Robert Bargrave (1628–61), recording his extensive travels as a merchant. This manuscript (now Bodleian Library MS Rawlinson C 799), describes four separate journeys made by Bargrave: his sea voyage from England to Constantinople; an arduous return journey overland from Constantinople to England, via Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Germany, and the Low Countries; extensive travels, for both commercial and cultural purposes, in Spain, Sicily, Italy and the Morea; and a return journey from Venice to Margate, via Trento, Innsbruck, and Augsburg, including his visit to Heidelberg where he met the exiled English royalist community at the court of Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia.
The introduction to the edition gives detailed consideration to the political, religious, and personal affiliations of the Bargraves, a prominent Kentish family, with special reference to their experiences of overseas travel. While abroad, Robert also twice met up with his cousin, John Bargrave (c. 1610–80), the noted traveller and antiquarian. The introduction also provides an assessment of the historical, literary, and geographical importance of Robert Bargrave’s journey; a survey of his extensive musical and dramatic interests; and the first detailed account of the provenances of both MS Rawlinson C 799 and now a lost earlier draft of this journal, identified here as the Eastry Court Manuscript. The edition includes seventeen illustrations, Bargrave family trees, and a selective bibliography of primary and secondary sources consulted.
Contents
Introduction; The Bargrave family: the life of Robert Bargrave; Isaac Bargrave and Sir Henry Wotton; The Bargraves and the Civil War; Robert Bargrave’s travels: The first journey: April 1647–September 1652; The second journey: September 1652–March 1653; The third journey: November 1654–February 1656; The fourth journey: February 1654–March 1656; Robert Bargrave’s dramatic and musical interests; Robert Bargrave’s diary: Bodleian Library Oxford, MS Rawlinson C 799: Composition; Posthumous provenance of MS Rawlinson C 799; The Eastry Court manuscript of Robert Bargrave’s travels; The travel diaries of Robert Bargrave; Robert Bargrave’s sea voyage from England to Constantinople and his residence there (1647–52); Robert Bargrave’s overland journey from Constantinople to England (1652–3); Robert Bargrave’s travels in Spain and Italy (1654–6); Robert Bargrave’s journey from Venice to Margate (1656); Bibliography; Index.