Journal of Art Historiography Number 15 December 2016 In Search of the Origin of the Gothic: Thomas Pitt´s Travel in Spain in 1760* Matilde Mateo Among the many travellers who toured Spain in the eighteenth century, there is one whose visit has gone unnoticed in the periegetic literature but who is of great interest: Thomas Pitt, First Baron Camelford (fig.1), who visited the Iberian Peninsula in 1760. 1 His impressions were recorded in a manuscript account, kept at The British Library, under the title of Observations in a Tour to Portugal & Spain, 1760, by John Earl of Strathmore & Thomas Pitt, Esq. (MSS Add 5845, 217-287/111v-146v). 2 This document has remained practically unknown in Spain, although not in the English speaking world and Portugal. 3 Nevertheless, the published information * The research for this article, in the United Kingdom and the United States of America, has been made possible by the financial support of the Xunta de Galicia, the University of Vigo, and the Spanish Ministry of Education and Culture. The article was originally published in Spanish, ȁEn busca del origen del góticoDZ el viaje de Thomas Pitt por España en ŗŝŜŖȂ, Goya. Revista de Arte, published by the Fundación Lázaro Galdeano, No 292, 2003, 9-22. It is reproduced here in an English translation by kind permission of the Fundación Lázaro Galdeano and Goya. Revista de Arte. 1 I am not aware of any study about British travellers in Spain that mentions Thomas Pitt. He is absent from the classic bibliographic repertoires of Arturo Farinelli, Viajes por España y Portugal desde la edad media hasta el siglo XX. Divagaciones bibliográficas, Roma: Reale academia d´Italia, 1942, and Raymond Foulche-Delbosc, Bibliographie des voyages en Espagne et Portugal, París: H.Welter, 1896. Pitt is also absent from more recent studies such as Consol Freixa, Los ingleses y el arte de viajar. Una visión de las ciudades españolas en el siglo XVIII, Barcelona: Ediciones del Serbal, 1993; José García Mercadal, Viajes de Extranjeros por España y Portugal, vol. III (Siglo XVIII), Madrid: Aguilar, 1962; Ana Clara Guerrero, Viajeros británicos en la España del siglo XVIII, Madrid: Aguilar, 1990; Blanca Krauel Heredia, Viajeros británicos en Andalucía. De Christopher Harvey a Richard Ford (1760-1845), Málaga: Universidad de Málaga, 1986; and Ian Robertson, Los curiosos impertinentes. Viajeros ingleses por España desde la accesión de Carlos III hasta 1855, Madrid: Serbal/Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1988. Pitt and Strathmore are also systematically ignored in all previous bibliography on the periegetic literature to Spain (see the sources included in the above mentioned repertoires). 2 The specific location of information within the manuscript is provided according to its two different numbering systems: the first one refers to the page numbers, while the second refers to the folio numbers. Lord Strathmore was the travel companion of Pitt and his mention in the title is just a gesture of courtesy, since the manuscript is written in first person and includes direct references to Lord Strathmore in third person. 3 The only reference to Pitt´s travel published in Spain is by Tonia Raquejo in her El palacio encantado. La Alhambra en el arte británico, Madrid: Taurus, 1989, 17, where she makes a short mention of his pioneering interest in the Islamic architecture of the south of Spain. The published material about Pitt and this manuscript is limited to