Comte de Lusace, May 16, 1738, Prague to Nesbeky

“Le 16e. May Jour de St. Jean Nepomusene Nous partimes de Prague vers les deux heures de L’Apres midy après avoir entendu deux petites Messe au Tombeau de ce St. et après avoir dejeuné. Nous arrivames le Soir à 7. heures à Nesbek. Le lendemain matin c’est à dire.”

Prague to Nespeky
Prague to Nespeky
Nespeky, CZ, post house, June 19, 2010

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Comte de Lusace

Friedrich Christian (Sept. 5, 1722- Dec. 17, 1763) was the eldest son of King August III and Queen Maria Josepha of Saxony/Poland. Sickly at birth and crippled by what was described at the time as "palsy", he toured Italy in 1738-40 on a quasi-Grand Tour-cum-pilgrimage and cure, aged 15-18. Traveling incognito as Comte de Lusace, he departed Dresden on May 13, 1738 in the company of his sister, Maria Amalia, the new Queen of Naples, for a four-week journey via modern-day Czech Republic, Austria and Slovenia to arrive in Naples on June 22, 1738. Following a cure on Ischia (July 12-Sept. 23, 1738) and a period of recuperation in Portici and Naples (July 23-Nov. 15, 1738), the prince sojourned for a year in Rome residing in Palazzo Albani alle Quattro Fontane (Nov. 18, 1738-Oct. 14, 1739). After Rome, he toured Tuscany, Lombardy and the Veneto (Oct. 14-Dec. 21, 1739) before floating into Venice for six months in Ca'Foscari (Dec. 21, 1739-June 11, 1740). Prior to returning to Dresden on Sept. 7, 1740, the prince spent two months in Vienna with his grandmother, Dowager Empress Wilhelmine Amalia. Three unpublished diaries written by the prince and two members of his entourage offer parallel accounts of each day of a unique tour of Italy and are presented here in the form of a blog, together with auxiliary documentation and illustrative material. NB: Inaccuracies, idiosyncrasies and misspellings are retained; some writing is bound into the margins and illegible. Autocorrect has occasionally introduced misspellings for which I apologize.