English Travellers of the Renaissance

An academic survey examines didactic travel literature addressed to English travellers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, collecting instructions, warnings, and praise that framed travel as a form of self-education. Arranged chronologically, it traces changing motives—language study, social polish, and the later decline of travel's necessity—while noting continental influences on manners, religion, and the emergence of the Grand Tour. The author situates these manuals within biography and history, highlights distinctive recommendations, and uses illustrative examples to show how travel literature both reflected and helped shape a cosmopolitan ideal in English society.