Thomas North's 1555 Travel Journal

Thomas North’s 1555 Travel Journal: From Italy to Shakespeare makes available a transcript of a previously unpublished early modern journal kept by a member of Queen Mary’s delegation to Rome, its purpose to win papal approval of England’s return to Roman Catholicism. The book provides details of the six-month journey, a discussion of the two extant copies of the manuscript, and an identification of the 20-year-old Thomas North as its author.

The journal is of considerable interest in and of itself. But, in addition, the authors’ research has revealed numerous connections with the plays of Shakespeare, connections that extend the playwright’s debt beyond North’s translation of Plutarch’s Lives and reveal how entries in the journal served as a template for Henry VIII and The Winter’s Tale. Both, the authors argue, were written by North during the Marian years (1554-58) and later adapted by Shakespeare.

Like the authors’ 2018 “A Brief Discourse of Rebellion and Rebels” by George North, this book presents original work using digital research tools, including massive databases and plagiarism software. The earlier book garnered worldwide attention, with a front-page story in TheNew York Times.