This book emerges from a fifteen-year fascination with early modern travel writing.
For inspiring me to study travel literature and for providing invaluable guidance, I
am first and foremost grateful to Theodore Cachey. Luigi Monga, whose enthusiastic
presence in the field of hodoeporics is dearly missed, was always available to share his
expertise. Loredana Polezzi’s generosity and captivating work on modern Italian travel
writing have been fundamental to this project. I also thank Graziella Parati, whose
mentoring and friendship through the years deserve much more than a brief mention.
The University of Oregon provided several grants that enabled me to complete
this book. A timely research fellowship from the Oregon Humanities Center made
possible the completion of my work, which has also benefited immensely from
the regular meetings of the energetic and convivial Early Modern Reading Group
(EMODs) at the University of Oregon. I am fortunate to have had such careful
and incisive readers, and am indebted in particular to Leah Middlebrook, Fabienne
Moore, Massimo Lollini, and David Castillo. Dan Rosenberg, Gina Psaki, Andrew
Schulz, Amanda Powell, Dianne Dugaw, Elizabeth Bohls, Michael Stern, Marc
Vanscheeuwijck, and Steven Shankman have been engaging interlocutors. Also in
the Pacific Northwest, Louisa Mackenzie and Benjamin Schmidt at the University
of Washington have provided excellent occasions for exchanges on the subject of
travel writing. Farther south, at USC and the Huntington Library, Peter Mancall has
created enticing venues for studying and discussing early modern travel culture. I
am grateful for his support.