Franco Maria Ricci’s first title, which he published in 1963, was a work of writing in the literal sense of the term: Giambattista Bodoni’s Manuale Tipograﬁco. Bodoni, a creator of refined typefaces prized for their elegance and legibility, had opened a printing house in 1790.

History

vulcani-2

vulcani

5_Vedute-di-Piazza-del-Pantheon-e-Piazza-San-Marco-su-ventagli-in-avorio-con-aste-e-guardie-traforate-e-intagliate_DA-LIBRO

5_vedute-di-piazza-del-pantheon-e-piazza-san-marco-su-ventagli-in-avorio-con-aste-e-guardie-traforate-e-intagliate_da-libro

2_Portrait-of-a-Woman,-Said-to-Be-Emma,-Lady-Hamilton_MET_Public-Domain

2_portrait-of-a-woman-said-to-be-emma-lady-hamilton_met_public-domain

1_Tribuna-Uffizi_Rijksmuseum_Public-Domain

1_tribuna-uffizi_rijksmuseum_public-domain

6_sydney-lady-morgan_1829_met_public-domain-2

6_Sydney-Lady-Morgan_1829_MET_Public-domain

2_richard-lassels-the-voyage-of-italy

2_Richard Lassels, The Voyage of Italy

6_johann-wolfgang-von-goethe_italienische-reise-1816

6_Johann-Wolfgang-von-Goethe_Italienische-Reise-(1816)

pietro-fontana_venus-of-medici-1819-cooper-hewitt_public-domain-3

Pietro-Fontana_Venus-of-Medici-1819-Cooper-Hewitt_Public-Domain

The Medici Venus, dating to the first century B.C., is one of the sculptures that Grand Duke Cosimo III had moved to Florence from the Villa Medici in the heart of Rome at the beginning of the eighteenth century. We can picture it on display in the Tribuna of the Uffizi, constantly surrounded by the admiring, curious and entranced gaze of visitors, a perfectly explicative symbol of the fascination that the “classical” past exerted on Grand Tourists.

The Medici Venus

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5_Watch_MET-Museum_Public-Domain

4_elisabeth-von-der-recke-thorvaldsens-museum_wikimedia-commons_public-domain

4_Elisabeth-von-der-Recke---Thorvaldsens-Museum_Wikimedia-Commons_Public-Domain

3_pompeo-batoni_-il-generale-william-gordon-of-fyvie_da-libro-2

3_Pompeo-Batoni_-Il-generale-William-Gordon-of-Fyvie_DA-LIBRO

4_gezicht-op-het-meer-van-nemi-albert-christoph-dies-1792_rijksmuseum_public-domain

4_Gezicht op het meer van Nemi, Albert Christoph Dies, 1792_Rijksmuseum_Public domain

5_angelica-kauffmann-by-johann-nepomuk-rauch_yale-center-for-british-art_public-domain-2

5_Angelica-Kauffmann-by-Johann-Nepomuk-Rauch_Yale-Center-for-British-Art_Public-domain

4_giovanni-battista-piranesi-1720-1778_vaso-antico-di-marmo-che-si-vede-nella-galleria-del-palazzo-farnese_da-libro

4_Giovanni-Battista-Piranesi-(1720-1778)_Vaso-Antico-di-marmo-che-si-vede-nella-Galleria-del-Palazzo-Farnese_DA-LIBRO

3_laurence-sterne_a-sentimental-journey-through-france-and-italy-1768

3_Laurence-Sterne_A-Sentimental-Journey-Through-France-and-Italy-(1768)

tempio-di-giunone-agrigento-in-un-disegno-di-emily-lowe-1859-2

Tempio-di-Giunone,-Agrigento,-in-un-disegno-di-Emily-Lowe,-1859

5_tobias-smollett_travels-through-france-and-italy-1766

5_Tobias-Smollett_Travels-through-France-and-Italy-(1766)

5_impressions-of-intaglios-after-the-statuary-of-canova-and-thorvaldsen_met-museum_public-domain

5_Impressions-of-intaglios-after-the-statuary-of-Canova-and-Thorvaldsen_MET-Museum_Public-Domain

matthew-darly-and-mary-darly_the-lilly-macaroni-publisher_1771_met_public-domain-4

Matthew-Darly-and-Mary-Darly_The-Lilly-Macaroni-Publisher_1771_MET_Public-domain

The Grand Tour was one of the main shapers of a common “European taste”. Though it largely concerned the higher and more privileged classes, and took different forms depending on the area, it impacted every sphere of culture: the arts, music, literature and even clothing. A curious and somewhat eccentric manifestation of this aspect were the so-called macaroni. This epithet identified and sometimes mocked English gentlemen who dressed in the Italian fashion. The famous architect Robert Adam described his attire like this: A most Frenchified head of hair, loaded with powder, ornaments his top: a complete suit of cut velvet of two colors, his body—which is set off by a white satin lining; white silk stockings and embroidered silk gushets, his legs: Mariguin pumps with red heels, his feet: stone-buckles like diamonds shine on his knees and shoes. A gold-handled sword, with white and gold handle knot, ornaments his side: Brussels lace, his breast and hands…

Macaroni

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9_Memoirs-of-Madame-Vigée-Lebrun-(1835)

4_the-history-of-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire-1776

4_The-History-of-the-Decline-and-Fall-of-the-Roman-Empire-(1776)

1_maria_met_kind_madonna_di_foligno_rijksmuseum_public-domain

1_Maria_met_kind_Madonna_di_Foligno_Rijksmuseum_Public-domain

2_giovanni-paolo-panini-galleria-di-vedute-di-roma-antica_da-libro

2_Giovanni-Paolo-Panini,-Galleria-di-vedute-di-Roma-antica_DA-LIBRO

3_madame-de-stael-by-pierre-louis-bouvier-1817_rijksmuseum_public-domain

3_Madame-de-Staël-by-Pierre-Louis-Bouvier,-1817_Rijksmuseum_Public-Domain

3_tuinen-van-de-villa-deste-te-tivoli-1726-anonymous-1726_rijksmuseum_public-domain

3_Tuinen-van-de-Villa-d'Este-te-Tivoli,-1726,-anonymous,-1726_Rijksmuseum_Public-domain

1_elisabeth-vigee-lebrun_autoritratto_da-libro

1_Elisabeth-Vigée-Lebrun_Autoritratto_DA-LIBRO

sublimi-contorni

The dimension of travel predisposes one to observe the surrounding landscape and nature in general. From this came the aesthetics of the sublime theorized by the Scottish philosopher Edmund Burke and then elaborated by Friedrich Schiller as the exaltation of the terrible grandeur of natural settings that “snatch his [man’s] mind away from the narrow sphere of the real and the oppressive imprisonment of physical life”.
The Grand Tourist was inclined to contemplate nature as eternal power, and the landscape, which offered the human mind an opportunity to measure itself with the incommensurable grandeur of nature, with the looming threat of its elements and the consequent perception of human fragility, acquired a particular fascination that found representation in various art forms.

The most effective representations of the sublime are perhaps the pictorial ones, in which, thanks to the choice of peculiar subjects and the combinations of colours, nature surrounds and confers solemnity on the ruins, often portrayed beneath dark skies. The artist observed natural phenomena such as earthquakes, floods and eruptions and then rendered them on the canvas, trying to capture their impetuous and emotion-stirring appeal.
Relating to these expressions, though of human origin, were the effects produced in the mind by large bonfires or exploding fireworks, which lit up the night and stood out against the darkness.

Sublime visions

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2_Robert Strange, Cristo risorto appare alla Vergine, incisione tratta dall’omonima opera di Guercino_DA LIBRO

7_mary-shelleys-history-of-a-six-weeks-tour-1817

7_Mary-Shelley’s-History-of-a-Six-Weeks’-Tour-(1817)

1_sir-francis-bacon_of-travel-1625

1_Sir-Francis-Bacon_Of-Travel-(1625)

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Jacob-Philipp-Hackert_Le-grandi-cascate-di-Tivoli

6_gezicht-op-romeinse-kazernes-en-zuilenrij-te-pompei-louis-ducros-1778_rijksmuseum_public-domain

6_Gezicht-op-Romeinse-kazernes-en-zuilenrij-te-Pompeï,-Louis-Ducros,-1778_Rijksmuseum_Public-domain

6_johann-zoffany_charles-townley-e-gli-amici-nella-sua-biblioteca-a-park-street_da-libro

6_Johann-Zoffany_Charles-Townley-e-gli-amici-nella-sua-biblioteca-a-Park-Street_DA-LIBRO

8_lady-morgan_italy

8_Lady-Morgan_Italy

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Unprotected-females-in-Sicily,-Calabria-and-on-the-top-of-mount-Aetna,-1859

Between the end of the seventeenth and the first half of the eighteenth century, a new idea of travel began to spread through Europe. It marked the beginning of the age of travel for travel’s sake. Travelling became the end and no longer just the means to satisfy a need. People travelled in search of knowledge and learning, prompted by curiosity and the desire to make fresh discoveries, but also, and why not, for pleasure and a certain wish to escape. This gave rise to the vogue for the “Italian journey”. The cradle of Western culture, Italy was an open-air museum, with a rich heritage of art works, a warm climate and age-old traditions that held great appeal for visitors from the north.
 This type of journey which often took in other European countries as well but had Italy as its favourite, unmissable destination, became an important formative experience aspired to by young members of the European aristocracy, artists, literati, intellectuals, churchmen, scientists and soon became known as the Grand Tour. The expression was first coined by the English writer and traveller Richard Lassels in his book The Voyage of Italy, published in 1670. This and many other attestations and happy experiences are included in Grand Tour d’Europa, published by Franco Maria Ricci Editore in collaboration with Van Cleef &amp; Arpels and devoted to Grand Tour travels and the place they held in the collective imagination.

Grand Tour of Europe

The Grand Tour of Europe

The Grand Tour
of Europe