Gilbert Burnet made the journey to Italy in 1685, during very turbulent years for England and the Stuart dynasty. Burnet was a politician, but above all a man of great culture. An Anglican, he supported with conviction the reconciliation between Anglicans and Presbyterians. For his ideas Burnet was forced into exile: he traveled first in the Netherlands and then in France. After giving his support to William of Orange as the new ruler of England following his ascent to the throne, he was appointed bishop of Salisbury. He dedicated the account of his tour of Italy to the English physicist Robert Boyle. His faith proved no impediment to him traveling to Italy, the home of Roman Catholicism. In fact the policy of Innocent XI, in the world Benedetto Odescalchi, in open contrast with the Gallicanism of the French church and with Louis XIV who supported its ideas, led the pope to give his diplomatic backing to the English revolution, between 1688 and 1689.

Burnet's work devoted to his tour of Italy (Some letters containing an account of what seemd most remarkable in travelling thourgh Switzerland, Italy, some parts of Germany etc. in the years 1685 and 1686) was published in Rotterdam in 1686. It presents a picture of Italy as a land of great beauty and abundant natural resources, "the richest country in Europe," but oppressed by the absolutism of its rulers and the power of the popes. Abject poverty, ignorance, and censorship left Italy no possibility of emerging from the profound darkness created by its religion and the lack of economic activity. The publication of his account triggered a lively debate and heated comments. The Benedictine father Jean Mabillon (1632-1707), author of the Iter Italicum, was not slow in responding, writing about Burnet's work in 1686 to Antonio Magliabechi, the Florentine scholar he had met during his stay in Florence. Michel Germain, another Benedictine father who had collaborated on the writing of the Iter Italicum, planned a translation of Mabillon's work into French so that it could be used to confute Burnet's claims. The fierce controversy showed no sign of dying down. It was now clear that the political and religious situation in Europe was deteriorating, with the absolutist ambitions of the "Sun King" and the emergence and entrenchment of old religious intolerances leading to bitter conflicts between France and the other European monarchies and involving the states in long, exhausting and bloody struggles for power (War of the League of Augsburg, 1689-97, and War of Spanish Succession, 1701-14).