Goethe’s Italian Journey vividly conveys his profound enthusiasm but also depicts well-organized, early tourism. Just seventy years later, the first photographers captured stations on the Grand Tour on gelatin silver plates. Giorgio Sommer (1834–1914), like Goethe from Frankfurt am Main, and Carlo Naya (1816–1882) produced intensely poetic views of St. Mark’s Square, the Colosseum, a smoking Vesuvius, and beautiful fisherwomen on Capri. — Do these dreamlike pictures show us what Goethe saw?

This extra-large volume juxtaposes quotes from Goethe with the corresponding images.