| Sumario: | An analysis of the functions of the three important agents -- authors, publishers and readers -- in Darnton's communication circuit may be able to give us a better picture of the cultural historical importance of certain genres in the early modern period. For a long time it was thought that the literature of travel had played an important part in the forming of a number of cosmopolitan values and ideas of the Enlightenment. In recent years this vision has been increasingly called into question by historians who believe it is possible to conclude from an analysis of the working methods of the early modern author that travel guides perpetuated stereotypes and erroneous ideas, rather than dealing with them critically. Such a hypothesis is perhaps still just tenable in the case of the seventeenth century, when most authors writing a travel guide confined themselves to copying text over from an earlier work or putting together less than careful compilations from several such publications. However, the period of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century constituted a turning point. Scholarly journals gave rise to a more critical approach to travel guides on the part of the professional and individual reader. The result was that authors and publishers found themselves obliged to take greater care. The publisher played an important role by choosing the writer, providing him with the necessary sources and ensuring that what they produced was accurate. The author no longer confined himself to a single source but compiled his material from a variety of earlier and contemporary guides, at the same time drawing on an amalgam of other sources such as ordinances, scientific treatises and art books. In some cases an extensive network of correspondents would be used, or the author would augment his material with his own first-hand experience. In this way the authors of travel guides could promote new destinations, break down old stereotypes and respond to changing tastes.
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