Magick City: Travellers to Rome from the Middle Ages to 1900, Volume I: The Middle Ages to the Seventeenth Century

The most comprehensive anthology of writings by visitors to the eternal city ever compiled – witty, profound and endlessly entertaining.
Drawing on French, Italian, Spanish, English, German, Scandinavian and American sources, Ronald Ridley has compiled a vivid collage-portrait of Rome through the centuries, illustrated with three hundred images and published in three elegant volumes: The Middles Ages to the Seventeenth Century, The Eighteenth Century and The Nineteenth Century. Presented here is the first volume.
How did visitors arrive? Where did they stay? What were their expenses? What did they see of churches, palaces, villas and antiquities? What did they like or dislike of what they saw? What did they think of Rome in all its contemporary facets? What events did they witness? What portraits do they provide of people in Rome at the time of their visit? Excerpts from memoirs by more than two hundred visitors give a myriad fascinating insights and together provide a detailed account of Rome over nearly a millennium.

Ronald T. Ridley first taught at the University of Sydney, then at the University of Melbourne, retiring in 2005 from a personal chair. His research interests concentrate on Egyptian and Roman history, historiography and archaeology. He is the author of some 15 books, including a history of Rome, a translation of Zosimus, biographies of Bernardino Drovetti and Carlo Fea, and The Eagle and the Spade (the archaelogy of Rome 1808-1814). He is a Fellow of the Antiquaries’ Society, the Royal Historical Society, the Pontifical Academy of Roman Archaeology, and the Australian Academy of the Humanities. In 2019, he was awarded the Premio Daria Borghese for his Prince of Antiquarians: Francesco de Ficoroni.