
William Blake – The Book of Urizen
Denounced by contemporaries as an eccentric and madman; a seer of visions and implacable opponent of dogmatic ways of thinking, William Blake followed his own artistic path through life, seemingly uninfluenced by predecessors and unfollowed by those who came after...

Old Travel, Voyage and Exploration Books
Human kind has always been characterized by curiosity, and throughout history its most courageous and adventurous members have never hesitated to embark on journeys into the great unknown lying beyond the horizon. At times, such journeys would have a disastrous end,...

James COOK & John HAWKESWORTH – An Account of the Voyages…
An Account of the Voyages undertaken by the order of His Present Majesty for making Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere, and successively performed by Commodore Byron, Captain Wallis, Captain Carteret and Captain Cook, in the Dolphin, the Swallow, and the Endeavour...

Charles Darwin – Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty’s Ships Adventure and Beagle (1839)
Charles DARWIN; Robert Fitzroy; Philip Parker King Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty’s Ships Adventure and Beagle, describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagle’s circumnavigation of the globe (1839) As the title...

Thomas Allom – Illustrated books
One can say that, unlike his counterparts, the nineteenth century English architect and topographic illustrator Thomas Allom left a graphic account of his journeys. His extensive travels through Europe and Asia Minor resulted in hundreds of illustrations compiled in a...

La Grande Bible de Tours (illustrated by Gustave Dore)
The names of Gustave Dore and Edouard Manet are often mentioned together in art history books. They both were born in 1832; they both died in 1883 – Dore even died on Manet’s 51st birthday; and they both had to endure their shares of negative criticism through life....

The Travels of Marco Polo (c.1300)
Arguably the most famous travel book of all time, The Travels of Marco Polo might not even come to be were it not for Rustichello da Pisa, a romance writer and Polo’s cellmate during their imprisonment in Genoa after their fellow Venetians suffered a defeat in a naval...

Ars Moriendi (“The Art of Dying”)
At the beginning of the 15th century, we find Europe in one of the least stable periods in its history. England and France were in the midst of their Hundred Years’ War; many local conflicts were also simmering, bringing along death, poverty and famine; and the trail...

The Apocalypse of 1313
The Apocalypse of 1313 was made for Isabella of France, the wife and queen of Edward II, king of England. This volume belongs to a broader genre of Apocalypse manuscripts – the popularity of which peaked in the 12th century – and also to a class of so-called...

Military & War – Montaigne’s Essays (1580)
Michel Eyquem De Montaigne The Essays Or, Morall, Politike, and Militarie Discourses of Lord Michael De Montaigne (1580; first English translation 1603) Montaigne’s Essays (Essais) are unique and even revolutionary in so many ways. In a single book, the author...