Galeazzo Gualdo Priorato’s Historia (1656) is not only arguably the first biography of Queen Christina of Sweden (1626‑1689) but it also provides a model for the interpretation of her life that influenced biographers over three centuries. This essay investigates Gualdo’s rhetorical strategies and their connection with Christina’s propagandistic aims. Focus is devoted to the author’s conjoint explanation of her abdication and conversion to Catholicism according to which the first is the result of the second; an interpretation that forgoes other reasons for her renunciation of the throne and that would be largely adopted by later biographers.

The history of Swedish descriptions of Versailles in the eighteenth century is just as rich and varied as that of the cultural and political relations between Sweden and France. This article focuses on three Swedish travellers’ accounts of Versailles : scientist Bengt Ferrner (1724–1802), nobleman Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt (1757–1814) and poet Frans Michael Franzén (1772–1847). While Ferrner’s descriptions from Paris abound in references to visits to the opera and theatre, his reaction to Versailles is one of indifference. The relation between Paris and Versailles is important for the appreciation of the latter also, in the diary of Baron Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt, who travelled together with King Gustav III in 1784. Armfelt’s position as a royal favourite gave him access to social and cultural circles that Ferrner was excluded from. Armfelt vividly describes the life of the court and gives a detailed account of the ceremonies that surrounded it. The two cities thus appear either in a conflicting relation, as in Ferrner’s case, or in a mutually reinforcing one, as in Armfelt’s diary. Finally, poet Frans Michael Franzén describes the post-revolutionary state of Versailles at the beginning of 1795. Attracted by revolutionary ideas, Franzén voices his aversion to absolutism in his description of the palace of Versailles, which, now deprived of the court, has lost its centrality. Although it is difficult to determine general trends from the writings of the three travellers, they reflect a growing disapproval of the ceremonies and glorification of French absolute monarchy, as epitomized by Versailles.

Almost everyone has used a guidebook, when travelling or in the armchair at home. But how and when was the guidebook born? In this book, seven scholars from various disciplines argue that the guidebook emerged in Rome in the late Middle Ages, to form a surprisingly consistent model for guidebooks up to our time. The descriptions of must-see monuments, recommended routes, practical information and value-laden instructions have guided travellers to Rome through more than 1000 years.