DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4328#0014
CHAPTER I
THE FIRST AND SECOND IONIAN MISSIONS OF THE SOCIETY OF DILETTANTI
The Society of Dilettanti have done more towards the acquisition of architectural knowledge, by the promulgation of publications on the antiquities
of Greece and Asia Minor and by other aids afforded to the professors of architecture, than all the Governments and Societies of England united.
W. Wilkins's letter to Viscount Goderich, 1831.
An account of the Society, written by the secretary, W. R. Hamilton, was published in 1855, and
a more extended history, compiled by Mr. Lionel Oust, was issued in 1898 and again in 1914.
In the following pages some account of the more serious archaeological work of the Society, leading
up to and including the Second Ionian Mission, is put together largely from MS. sources. The
existing MS. records of the Society, bound up in several large volumes, and mostly consisting of
letters, include some historical notes made by Hamilton soon after his appointment as secretary in
1830, " to enable the Committee to comply with the demands of the Society." There are also preserved
a few pages of a still earlier account, which seems to be that referred to by Hamilton thus: "In 1822
Mr. Sotheby reported that the MS. commencement of the history of the Society found among the
papers of the late Sir Henry Englefield appeared in too imperfect a state to admit of publication or
continuance of the work." Englefield was secretary at the time when the Second Ionian Mission was
undertaken. He began his notes by pointing out how in the first half of the eighteenth century it had
been the custom for gentlemen to travel, but without ideals or direction except those of a travelling
tutor, generally a Swiss. Naples was the southern limit of the Grand Tour, the majestic ruins of
Paestum were unknown and Sicily was unvisited.
The eastern part of the Mediterranean, her romantic islands and shores, covered with the remains of splendid temples,
were known only to the merchants who resided in the different ports for the purposes of commerce. ... In the midst of
this Cimmerian gloom, some cause, perhaps trifling in itself, and for which it would be now vain to enquire, lighted a flame
which has ever since continued to burn with increasing lustre. In the year 1732, some men of rank, desirous to ennoble
their social meetings by giving them an object beyond the ordinary, associated themselves under the modest appellation
of the Society of Dilettanti for the express purpose of cultivating elegant and classical art in this country. ... In the
history of the human mind so many instances occur of these high tides of talent, that however difficult it may be to assign
a cause for them their existence can scarcely be questioned. In the year 1733, Dr. Pococke, one of the most learned, intrepid,
and accurate of modern travellers, commenced his visits to foreign regions. . . . While Pococke was thus employed, another
voyage into the same countries was undertaken with which the Society of Dilettanti has an immediate connection. In the
year 1738, the Earl of Sandwich, then a youth only twenty years old, accompanied by the Earl of Bessborough, then Mr.
Ponsonby, and two other English gentlemen, made a voyage around the eastern end of the Mediterranean.1 They first went
to Athens and the adjacent parts of Greece, thence to Constantinople and through the Greek islands, along the coast of Asia
Minor to Crete, and ended their voyage in Egypt, of which they, however, only visited the lower part as far as the Pyramids.
Membership of the new Society was limited to those who had met in Italy, or those who would
so meet members in the future. In March 1747 " It was resolved that it is the opinion of this Society
that Avignon is in Italy, also that it is the opinion of the Society that no other town in France is
in Italy." (!)
One of the first ambitions of the Society was to have a meeting-place of its own, and in 1742 a
capital fund was established. It was then resolved "That the general fund be appropriated and made
sacred to the sole use of erecting or procuring a building." A note of the next year reads: " Look
out for a proper spot of ground to build a Room." In 1750 it was " Ordered that whoever proposes
allotment of general fund except for building be an enemy of the Society." In 1764 this rule was
amended by these significant words: " or for sending travellers to the East."
In Hamilton's MS. notes occurs the following interesting entry: " In the year 1755 I observe in
the accounts the first mention made of any disposition on the part of the Society to devote the
1 The two other gentlemen were Mr. Nelthorpe and Mr. Mackye. They took with them Liotard, a painter, to record "those noble remains of
antiquity which they were in quest of." Sandwich himself " copied above fifty Greek inscriptions and took plans and drafts of the pyramids and all
the ancient buildings." It thus appears that this was an archaeological expedition. Sandwich's notes were published after his death in 1799. This is
a form of yachting which might be reintroduced with advantage to scholarship.
1 B
THE FIRST AND SECOND IONIAN MISSIONS OF THE SOCIETY OF DILETTANTI
The Society of Dilettanti have done more towards the acquisition of architectural knowledge, by the promulgation of publications on the antiquities
of Greece and Asia Minor and by other aids afforded to the professors of architecture, than all the Governments and Societies of England united.
W. Wilkins's letter to Viscount Goderich, 1831.
An account of the Society, written by the secretary, W. R. Hamilton, was published in 1855, and
a more extended history, compiled by Mr. Lionel Oust, was issued in 1898 and again in 1914.
In the following pages some account of the more serious archaeological work of the Society, leading
up to and including the Second Ionian Mission, is put together largely from MS. sources. The
existing MS. records of the Society, bound up in several large volumes, and mostly consisting of
letters, include some historical notes made by Hamilton soon after his appointment as secretary in
1830, " to enable the Committee to comply with the demands of the Society." There are also preserved
a few pages of a still earlier account, which seems to be that referred to by Hamilton thus: "In 1822
Mr. Sotheby reported that the MS. commencement of the history of the Society found among the
papers of the late Sir Henry Englefield appeared in too imperfect a state to admit of publication or
continuance of the work." Englefield was secretary at the time when the Second Ionian Mission was
undertaken. He began his notes by pointing out how in the first half of the eighteenth century it had
been the custom for gentlemen to travel, but without ideals or direction except those of a travelling
tutor, generally a Swiss. Naples was the southern limit of the Grand Tour, the majestic ruins of
Paestum were unknown and Sicily was unvisited.
The eastern part of the Mediterranean, her romantic islands and shores, covered with the remains of splendid temples,
were known only to the merchants who resided in the different ports for the purposes of commerce. ... In the midst of
this Cimmerian gloom, some cause, perhaps trifling in itself, and for which it would be now vain to enquire, lighted a flame
which has ever since continued to burn with increasing lustre. In the year 1732, some men of rank, desirous to ennoble
their social meetings by giving them an object beyond the ordinary, associated themselves under the modest appellation
of the Society of Dilettanti for the express purpose of cultivating elegant and classical art in this country. ... In the
history of the human mind so many instances occur of these high tides of talent, that however difficult it may be to assign
a cause for them their existence can scarcely be questioned. In the year 1733, Dr. Pococke, one of the most learned, intrepid,
and accurate of modern travellers, commenced his visits to foreign regions. . . . While Pococke was thus employed, another
voyage into the same countries was undertaken with which the Society of Dilettanti has an immediate connection. In the
year 1738, the Earl of Sandwich, then a youth only twenty years old, accompanied by the Earl of Bessborough, then Mr.
Ponsonby, and two other English gentlemen, made a voyage around the eastern end of the Mediterranean.1 They first went
to Athens and the adjacent parts of Greece, thence to Constantinople and through the Greek islands, along the coast of Asia
Minor to Crete, and ended their voyage in Egypt, of which they, however, only visited the lower part as far as the Pyramids.
Membership of the new Society was limited to those who had met in Italy, or those who would
so meet members in the future. In March 1747 " It was resolved that it is the opinion of this Society
that Avignon is in Italy, also that it is the opinion of the Society that no other town in France is
in Italy." (!)
One of the first ambitions of the Society was to have a meeting-place of its own, and in 1742 a
capital fund was established. It was then resolved "That the general fund be appropriated and made
sacred to the sole use of erecting or procuring a building." A note of the next year reads: " Look
out for a proper spot of ground to build a Room." In 1750 it was " Ordered that whoever proposes
allotment of general fund except for building be an enemy of the Society." In 1764 this rule was
amended by these significant words: " or for sending travellers to the East."
In Hamilton's MS. notes occurs the following interesting entry: " In the year 1755 I observe in
the accounts the first mention made of any disposition on the part of the Society to devote the
1 The two other gentlemen were Mr. Nelthorpe and Mr. Mackye. They took with them Liotard, a painter, to record "those noble remains of
antiquity which they were in quest of." Sandwich himself " copied above fifty Greek inscriptions and took plans and drafts of the pyramids and all
the ancient buildings." It thus appears that this was an archaeological expedition. Sandwich's notes were published after his death in 1799. This is
a form of yachting which might be reintroduced with advantage to scholarship.
1 B