Notes
Dutens, Louis (1730-1812)Itinéraire des Routes les plus fréquentées, ou journal d'un voyage aux villes principales de l'Europe, en 1768, 1769, 1770, et 1771, published 1777, xxxi, [1]159,[1], half-bound in calf with cream, blue and pink marbled-paper boards (255x133).Dutens's Itinéraire contains useful information for the traveller including the cost of hiring horses, toll and ferry charges, and exchange rates. The principal part consists of itineraries, beginning with the route from Edinburgh to London, followed by that from London to Paris via Calais and Lille, or Calais and Amiens, and giving the number of staging posts, distance in miles between towns, and times taken. The book covers England, France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Holland, Belgium and Spain.Inscribed on the title page John Soane (the 'e' added later) / Florence cost (cut, but Soane's notebook with sketches, 'Notes Italy & Italian language' (SM volume 162) f.163v has Dutens 12 [paul]). The guidebook was evidently bought in Florence in April 1780 and was later bound up for Soane, the pages being over-trimmed. As well as a thumb-nail plan and section of the hall, cortile and stair of the Palazzo Durazzo-Pallavicini, Genoa (p.45), the book contains some marginal notes written by Soane from April to June 1780 (and subsequently). From these it seems that he was in Rome on 19 April (p.56), travelled (72½ miles) from Florence to reach Bologna on 30 April (p.50), and was in Ferrara on 1 May (p.72), Padua on 2 May (p.72), Vicenza on 3 May (p.74), Verona on 4 May (p.74), Milan on 12 May (p.46), Voghera on 13 May (p.46), stayed in Genoa from 13 to 16 May (pp.44-6), was in Schaffhausen on 31 May (p.84), Cologne on 15 June (p.102), Liege on 16 June (p.102) and Louvain on 18 June (p.102) (and see Soane's notebook with sketches, 'Notes Italy & Italian language' (SM volume 162) for his journey of 19 April to 30 May, 1780, which tallies with the places and dates given above).For bibliographical description see online Library Catalogue See also a guidebook brought by Soane from London which accompanied him throughout his time abroad (18 March 1778 to the end of June 1780) and to which he added notes: Lady Anna Riggs Miller (1741-81), Letters from Italy, describing the manners, customs, antiquities, paintings, &c. of that country, in the years MDCCLXX and MDCCLXXI, ... By an English woman. The second edition, revised and corrected, published 1777, volume II. Literature. P. du Prey, John Soane: the making of an architect, 1982, pp.144-6, 358 n.46 and see also P. du Prey, 1977, John Soane’s architectural education 1753-80, pp.292-337 for Soane's homeward journey.
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Digitisation of the Drawings Collection has been made possible through the generosity of the Leon Levy Foundation
