Travel document for David Polhill, Samuel Mead, Richard Mead, Thomas Pelet and Pierre Faber issued in Zurich by the Dutch envoy Pieter Valkenier [manuscript].
1696
Items
Details
Title
Travel document for David Polhill, Samuel Mead, Richard Mead, Thomas Pelet and Pierre Faber issued in Zurich by the Dutch envoy Pieter Valkenier [manuscript].
Created/published
Zurich, 1696.
Description
1 sheet ; 32.5 x 20 cm
Note
This is a PRELIMINARY RECORD. It may contain incorrect information. Please email catalog@folger.edu for assistance.
Genre/form
Manuscripts (documents)
Passports.
Passports.
Place of creation/publication
Switzerland.
Item Details
Call number
FAST ACC 271276 (flat)
Folger-specific note
Purchase made possible by The Eric and Mary Weinmann Acquisitions Fund. From dealer's description: "Zurich, [18/28 May] 1696. Laissez- passer, printed in German on single sheet of paper. Oblong folio (32.5 x 20cm) completed in manuscript, signed at foot “Valkenier,” sealed in red wax with impression of [Valckenier’s?] coat of arms, old folds, closed tear at margin along one fold (not affecting text), a few old water- stains at margins.A rare example of a seventeenth century laissez-passer for a group of English travellers on the Grand Tour, this document was issued in Switzerland in Zurich 18 May 1696 to a party of five Englishmen, listed here as “David Polhill, Samuel Mead, Richard Mead, Thomas Pelet, Pierre Faber ... fünf Englisch Cavaliers.” Dr Richard Mead (1673-1754) rose to a position of prominence as a physician in London and is remembered in particular as a bibliophile and art collector. Here we find him as a young man returning from his Grand Tour. After medical studies at Leiden he is known to have set out early in 1695 with his eldest brother Samuel Mead, David Polhill and Thomas Pellet (c.1671-1744), a fellow medical student. In researching Mead’s journey we have not noted any references to the “Pierre Faber” listed here as the fifth traveller. Mead is known to have visited Padua, Rome and Naples. It may be that Mead’s Dutch connections on account of his having studied at Leiden may have assisted in the obtaining of this document from the Dutch envoy at Zurich Pieter Valkenier (1641-1712) whose signature is penned at the foot of the sheet together with an impression of his seal in red wax." Ordered from Samuel Gedge D9306, 2019-05-29, Cat. 28 #68.