Itinerary of the Morea
Being a Description of the Routes of that Peninsula

Sir William Gell's 1817 survey of routes through the Peloponnese illuminates contemporary Greece and the discipline of classical topography.

William Gell (Author)

9781108050814, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 August 2012

270 pages, 1 map
21.6 x 14 x 1.5 cm, 0.35 kg

Classical topographer Sir William Gell (1777–1836) first came to public attention with his Topography of Troy (1804). Based on his travels around Bunarbashi, near to where Schliemann would subsequently excavate, the work became a standard treatise. Byron even wrote: 'Of Dardan tours let dilettanti tell, / I leave topography to classic Gell.' A noted conversationalist and intellectual intermediary, Gell became a Fellow of the Royal Society and, indeed, a Member of the Society of Dilettanti. He also served, in 1803, on a diplomatic mission to the Ionian Islands; his subsequent journey, with the archaeologist Edward Dodwell, through the Peloponnese - then known as the Morea - became the subject of several later books, including Narrative of a Journey in the Morea (1823; also reissued in this series) and this 1817 publication. Comprising a survey of routes through the area, and their natural and archaeological landmarks, it sheds light on both contemporary Greece and the practicalities of early topographical study.

Preface
1. Achaia
2. Elis
3. Messenia
4. Arcadia
5. Argolis
6. Laconia
Index.

Subject Areas: Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA]