James Boswell

This volume is the first complete and unexpurgated edition of James Boswell's account of his sojourn in Italy and France, accompanied with extensive annotations, appendices (including items not previously published) and other editorial material. A single day's entry in Boswell's journal can require discussions of a wide range of topics such as post roads, architectural history, opera buffa, taxidermy, political theory and classical mythology, to name just a few examples. It is an important contribution to the study of what scholars now conceive as multiple European enlightenments and contributes significantly to our understanding of the set of travel practices, itineraries and institutions associated with 'The Grand Tour'.

James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck (29 October 1740 - 19 May 1795), was a Scottish biographer, diarist, and lawyer, born in Edinburgh. He is best known for his biography of his friend and older contemporary, the English writer Samuel Johnson, which is commonly said to be the greatest biography written in the English language. A great mass of Boswell's diaries, letters and private papers were recovered from the 1920s to the 1950s, and their ongoing publication by Yale University has transformed his reputation.