The present _Handbook to the Mediterranean_ describes the chief routes
along the Mediterranean coasts. In his endeavour to unite within a
single volume the chief points of interest in so vast a region the
Editor has naturally been confronted by peculiar difficulties. These
points are so numerous that little space could be afforded for more
subordinate matters, so that many details have necessarily been omitted.
Again as regards the selection of routes, and of places to be described,
opinions frequently differ. The Editor ventures, however, to hope that
on the whole he has satisfied the requirements of most of his readers.
As many of the regions which are here grouped historically and
geographically[1] have already been treated of in several of his other
Handbooks, the Editor would respectfully refer the traveller to these
for fuller details[2]. The new subjects comprise Madeira and the Canary
Islands, the coast of Morocco, and Algeria and Tunisia, the materials
for describing which have been collected, in the course of much travel,
by several of the Editor’s friends and fellow-workers. The chief Author
of the German edition, which appeared in 1909, was _Dr. F. Propping_, of
Godesberg on the Rhine, who personally visited most of the places
described. The present English edition has been prepared by the Editor’s
old friend, emeritus _Professor John Kirkpatrick_, formerly of Edinburgh
University, who fifty years ago (1861) translated the Handbook for the
Rhine, and thus introduced ‘Baedeker’s guidebooks’ to the English
public. In bringing the information contained in the new Mediterranean
volume up to date the Editor has received valuable aid from British and
United States consuls and ministers, and from other authorities, who
have shown the utmost courtesy and willingness to assist. To all of
these the Editor expresses his grateful acknowledgments. Many readers
will be interested also in the geographical sketch by the late
_Professor Theobald Fischer_ (d. 1910), one of the great authorities on
the Mediterranean coast-lands.
Footnote 1:
The volume contains six separable Sections. _First_: Introduction;
From England to the Mediterranean by the Portuguese Coast; Madeira and
the Canary Islands (pp. i-xxxvi and 1–48).—_Second_: Andalusia;
Morocco (pp. 49–110).—_Third_: Sea Routes in the W. Mediterranean (pp.
111–166).—_Fourth_: Algeria (pp. 167–318).—_Fifth_: Tunisia (pp.
319–394).—_Sixth_: Sea Routes in the E. Mediterranean; the Black Sea
(p. 395 to the end of the volume).
Footnote 2:
Comp. for the W. Mediterranean _Baedeker’s_ ‘Southern France’,
‘Northern Italy’, ‘Central Italy and Rome’, ‘Southern Italy, Sicily,
and Sardinia’, ‘Italy from the Alps to Naples’, and ‘Spain and
Portugal’; for Trieste and Dalmatia, ‘Austria-Hungary’; for the E.
Mediterranean, ‘Egypt’, ‘Palestine and Syria’, ‘Greece’, and
‘Konstantinopel und Kleinasien’ (at present in German only); for the
Black Sea, ‘Russland’ or ‘Russie’.
Special care has been bestowed on the MAPS and PLANS with which the
Handbook is furnished. Several of these are based on materials hitherto
unpublished, and others have been locally revised and improved for the
special benefit of the Handbook. In the case of Algeria and Tunisia the
French spelling has been adopted in the letter-press as well as in the
maps[3].
Footnote 3:
Note, however, that in the letter-press the English _j_ is used in
preference to the French _dj_ (as in _jebel_, mountain), and that the
German or Italian _u_ is preferred to the French _ou_ or the English
_oo_ (as in _sûk_, market). So too, as a general rule, all the other
vowel-sounds in the proper names follow the Italian pronunciation.
HOTELS. As in all his Handbooks the Editor has taken the utmost care to
recommend none but comfortable and respectable hotels. From this, as
from all his other Handbooks, advertisements, direct and indirect, are
absolutely excluded. Persons calling themselves agents for Baedeker’s
Handbooks are impostors and should be handed over to the police.
As many matters treated of in the Handbook are liable to frequent change
and as, in the Orient particularly, trustworthy sources of information
are too often lacking, the Editor will warmly appreciate any
communications with which travellers may kindly favour him.