Thomas Coryat (also Coryate) (c.1577–1617) was an English traveller and writer of the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean age. He is principally remembered for two volumes of writings he left regarding his travels, on foot, through Europe and parts of Asia. In addition, he is often credited with introducing the table fork to England.

He was born in Somersetshire, educated at Westminster school and Oxford, and later was employed by Prince Henry, eldest son of James I as a sort of "court jester". In 1608 he undertook a walking tour of Europe, and published his memoirs of the events in a volume entitled Coryat's Crudities hastily gobbled up in Five Months Travels in France, Italy, &c (1611). This volume gives a vivid picture of life in Europe during the time; it is particularly important to music historians for giving extraordinary details of the activities of the Venetian School, one of the most famous and progressive contemporary musical movements in Europe, including an elaborate description of the festivities at the church of San Rocco in Venice, with polychoral and instrumental music by Giovanni Gabrieli, Bartolomeo Barbarino, and others.

Later in 1611 he published a second volume of travel writings, this one entitled Coryats Crambe, or his Coleworte twice Sodden.

Ever restless, he set out once again in 1612, this time for Asia, visiting Greece, the eastern Mediterranean area, Persia, and eventually India. From Agra and elsewhere he sent letters describing his experiences. He died, while traveling, in Surat in 1617.

Coryat's writings were hugely popular at the time. His accounts of inscriptions, many of which are now lost, were valuable; and his accounts of Italian customs and manners—including the use of the table fork—were influential in England at a time when other aspects of Italian culture, such as the madrigal, had already been in vogue for more than twenty years.

Coryat is considered by many to have been the first Briton to do the Grand Tour of Europe; a practice which became a mainstay of the education of British upper class men in the 18th century.

Reference

• The Long Strider : How Thomas Coryate Walked From England to India in the Year 1613/Dom Moraes and Sarayu Srivatsa. New Delhi, Penguin, ISBN 0-67-004975-1.