Bullen Reymes's Grand Tour, 1633–36

The Folger acquired an important set of diaries in 2025 written by Bullen Reymes (1613–1672) that record his travels across France, Italy, Greece, and Turkey in his early twenties. Written in French, Italian, and English, they represent one of the earliest accounts of a “Grand Tour” trip.

By the 1630s, when Bullen Reymes set off, the grand tour was in the process of becoming a standard rite of passage for affluent young adults. Destined for an heiress, a career in politics, and houses in London and the country, he needed some refinement before he took on larger responsibilities. At the age of 19, he left England for light duties as an attaché in Paris and Venice, and his adventures began.

Training to become a Renaissance man

IF BULLEN REYMES WERE ALIVE TODAY, TIKTOK AND INSTAGRAM WOULD HAVE BEEN HIS JAM. Almost 400 years ago, Reymes rubbed shoulders with hundreds of fascinating people during a four year “Grand Tour” across Europe. Lucky for us, he kept a diary, in which he records the daily activities of a privileged, single, white, privately educated, well-connected eldest son.

Reymes seems to have been following the Castiglione playbook—The Book of the Courtier (1528), published in many editions and translations throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. Baldessare Castiglione provides detailed instructions on what you need to know and how you need to set yourself up for success at court. He describes the attributes of what we now think of as a “Renaissance man.” A courtier needed to behave and speak with natural ease and grace, demonstrate physical prowess and military skills, dress snazzily (but not too snazzily!), sing, dance, paint and draw, play musical instruments, write elegantly, and be well read. And he needed to do all this with total humility, modesty, tactfulness, authenticity, and discretion.

Reymes also anticipated James Howell’s advice to keep a travel journal in his Instructions for Forreine Travel (London, 1642), printed after Reymes had returned from his travels: “He must alwayes have a Diary about him, when he is in motion on Iourneys, to set down what his Eyes meetes, with most remarquable in the day time, out of which he may raise matter of discours at night, and let him take it for a rule, that Hee offend lesse who writes many toyes, than he, who omits one serious thing” (pp. 30-31).

Reymes, with the help of tutors and travelling companions and new acquaintances, set out to become a Renaissance man. Over the course of 300 pages, he mentions hundreds of people he encountered, describes the cool things he saw and bought did, and records his daily practices and studies.

Meeting Claudio Monteverdi and Artemesia Gentileschi

In Venice, Reymes sees the composer Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643) and listens to his music (on December 8 and 27, 1633 and January 8, 1634). He parties until 2am on his 20th birthday. He notes the names of Venice’s most famous courtesans, most remarkable palaces, and most ancient families. He dresses in women’s clothes for a masquerade during Venice’s Carnevale. He travels south through Padua, Vicenza, Verona, Mantua, Milan, Pavia, Modena, Bologna, Loreto, Rome, Gaeta, and finally, Naples.

In Naples, he and his friends visit the house of the artist Artemesia Gentileschi (1593–1653) three times over four days in March 1634. On the third visit, he sees Artemisia’s daughter play the spinets and learns that she also paints, like her mother. His acquaintance with the famous painter is not surprising, given that he hung out with her brother, Giulio Gentileschi, in Paris, in the summer of 1633. In June 1636 he spent more time with Giulio in Genoa, saw some of their father Orazio’s artwork, and delivered from London a letter from either their father or one of their brothers, who were court painters there.

On the Greek isle of Zakynthos, he dances with the bride at a wedding. The next night, he describes a perfect evening: dining near a fountain with friends and listening to the locals play what he described as the best music of his life. One might call this island Arcadia, on the slopes of Mount Parnassus, he muses to himself.

In Smyrna, he sees the most fertile valley he has ever seen in his life, with trees of pomegranates, apricots, olives, almonds, and figs. On Lesbos, he goes swimming and finds some pretty seashells. In Constantinople, he attends a Jewish wedding and visits all of the mosques.

On the island of Milos, he observes something remarkable: the women are dressed like the Amazons in Philip Sidney’s Arcadia (1590). Of course he had read Sidney’s great romance: it is highly recommended as an example of “the best and purest English” by Henry Peacham in his self-help manual, The compleat gentleman fashioning him absolute in the most necessary & commendable qualities concerning minde or bodie that may be required in a noble gentleman (London, 1622).

Reading Shakespeare

After a quick trip back to England, Reymes returns to Venice in 1636 for a third time. This is the only part of the journal that is in English. In addition to the usual pastimes of a grand tourist—sitting for portraits, playing the lute, learning languages, attending theater, hanging out with friends—he reads. His entries typically just say that he “red,” or that he read in Spanish, Italian, or English. Only once does he mention reading a particular book, and he mentions this same book on three occasions.

On August 9 he wrote some letters, visited friends, and “red in Chaspers booke.”

On August 22, he sat for a portrait, visited friends, skipped supper, and went to St. Georges with two other friends, “Mr Burrous and Cp,” “wher we red in Shapers booke.” His reading partners were Caisho Borough, son of Sir John Borough (d. 1643),* and Reymes’ roommate Captain Richard Feilding, a cousin to Basil Feilding, ambassador extraordinaire to Venice. St. George’s probably refers to the island of San Giorgio Maggiore, and one can imagine the three friends sitting near the church, or the old Benedictine monastery ruins, reading aloud. We know from marginal notes in surviving copies of the Folios that Shakespeare’s plays were read both privately and aloud in groups, but this is an extremely rare example of an early modern person journaling about it.

And on October 30, he missed his fiddle lesson, went with a friend to The Trumpet (his favorite local tavern), came home and “red in Shaskpers Playes,” had supper, and played on the lute.

In all three examples, he well and truly mangled Shakespeare’s name, but we can guess that he had a copy of the Second Folio, printed in 1632. Perhaps it was missing all of its prefatory material and so he was unfamiliar with the proper spelling of the playwright’s name; perhaps he was spelling the playwright’s name quickly and phonetically and poorly, making it not that different from the other odd spellings in his journal.

These entries tell us that Shakespeare’s works travelled beyond the English Channel at an early stage. They represent the earliest known example of any Shakespeare Folio being read abroad (the Folger also has the earliest known First Folio to be owned outside of England, acquired by Constantine Huygens in 1647).

Reading Shakespeare’s plays was part of Reymes’s quest to become a “Renaissance man.” Alas, we don’t know whether his copy of Shakespeare still survives. But other books owned by him do survive, including books at the Folger (some of which were owned by his father, also named Bullen Reymes). One title sounds like it could have been picked up overseas as a young man: Les declamations, procedures, et arrests d’amours (Lyon, 1581), a French book on love, with Cupid as the judge. It was printed in Lyon, where Reymes spent a week in September 1633.

In the Folger vaults, Reymes is not the only early modern diarist to mention Shakespeare. We also have the journals of Richard Stonley, who records the first known purchase of Shakespeare’s first printed work, Venus and Adonis, right after it was published in 1593. In 1662 or 1663, the vicar of Stratford upon Avon, John Ward, notes in his journal: “Remember to peruse Shakespeare’s plays and be versed in them that I may not be ignorant in that matter.”

Reymes’ journals have not yet been edited. We look forward to learning more about his Grand Tours as researchers begin to consult this manuscript in our reading room.

* Caisho Borough and Bullen Reymes remained close friends when they returned to London. John Aubrey’s Miscellanies, first printed in 1696 and then expanded with Aubrey’s additional notes after his death, includes a tragic and scandalous story involving Reymes, Borough (“one of the most beautiful Men in England”), and the ghost of the Grand Duke’s mistress, with whom Borough had a liaison. When the Grand Duke learned of the affair, he threatened to murder Borough. Borough fled the city without telling his lover. She fell into a despair and killed herself: “At the same moment that she expired, she did appear to Caisho at his Lodgings in London, Colonel Remes was then in Bed with him, who saw her as well as he; giving him an account of her Resentments of his Ingratitude to her, in leaving her so suddenly, and exposing her to the Fury of the Duke, not omitting her own Tragical Exit, adding withall, that he should be slain in a Duell, which accordingly happened” (pp. 72-74).