journey of those citizens who had done good service to the towns where
they were born; of the Foulcres of Augsburg, to whom was due the main
part of the embellishment of that city, who had placed palaces at all
the crossings of the streets, and filled the churches with all kinds
of works of art; of this Cardinal Clesius also, who, besides building
this church and several streets at his own charges, added a very fine
building to the castle of the town.” The outside of this building is
nothing remarkable, but within it is furnished and painted and enriched
in a fashion beyond anything that can be imagined. All the panel work
below is enriched with painted patterns, the bosses of the ceilings
are gilded and carven, the floors are made of a kind of hardened
earth painted like marble, a part of the rooms being fitted after one
fashion, and part, _à l’Allemande_, with stoves. One of these is of
porcelain darkened to the colour of bronze, and made in the form of
a group of large human figures, which, being heated warm the room.
Moreover there are certain others, stationed close to the wall, which
give out water, this being brought to them from the fountain in the
court below. This is a fine piece of work. We saw there also amongst
the other designs on the ceilings a torchlight procession by night,
which M. de Montaigne admired greatly, also two or three circular
chambers, in one of which was an inscription recording how “Clesius,
having been sent in the year 1530 to the coronation of the Emperor
Charles V. by Pope Clement VII., on St. Matthias’s Day, as envoy on
the part of Ferdinand, King of Hungary and Bohemia, Count of Tirol,
and brother of the aforenamed Emperor, was made a cardinal, being
already Bishop of Trent.” Moreover, they have set round the chamber
the armorial bearings, and painted on the walls the arms and the names
of the gentlemen who accompanied him: some fifty in number, all counts
and barons owing service to the bishopric. In one of these chambers
there is a trap door through which a man can slip into the town without
passing the main entrance, and two richly ornamented chimney-pieces.
This was an excellent cardinal. The Foulcres have done great building
work, but they have built for their posterity, while the cardinal
aforesaid has built for the public weal, for he has left this castle,
together with the furniture still in it worth more than a hundred
thousand crowns, to his successors in office. Besides this he left to
the public fund of the bishopric a hundred and fifty silver thalers,
which is held without payment of interest on the same. In spite of
these benefactions they have left his church of Notre Dame unfinished,
and have erected a very mean tomb over his body. His successors provide
themselves with no other furniture than the aforenamed for the castle.
Some of this is fitted for the winter, some for the summer, and none of
it can be alienated.
Here they reckon distance by the Italian mile, of which five go to make
one mile of Germany, and they count the hours through to twenty-four
without dividing them in the midst. We found good lodging at the
“Rose,” and left Trante on the Saturday after dinner. We followed a
road like the last we traversed in the valley, which was here wider and
girt by higher, uninhabited mountains, having the river Adisse on our
right hand. There we passed a castle[113] belonging to the archduke,
which commands the road, like various other strongholds elsewhere,
built to control the passage, and arrived at Rovere[114] very late,
after travelling fifteen miles. Never until now did we journey in the
dewfall,[115] so carefully had we laid out our time on the road.
This town belongs to the archduke aforenamed. Here in our lodging we
found once more the usages with which we were familiar: we found,
indeed, not merely German neatness in rooms and furniture and glass
windows, but German stoves as well, which commended themselves to M. de
Montaigne much more than open chimneys.[116] As to food, we had here
no crayfish, which thing M. de Montaigne found very strange, seeing
that, ever since we left Plommieres, a distance of two hundred leagues,
this dish had been put before us at every meal. Here and in all this
mountainous country they commonly eat snails larger and fatter than
those of France, but not so well flavoured; also truffles which they
peel and serve sliced with oil and vinegar, a passably good dish. The
truffles we ate at Trante had been kept for a year. Here at Rovere,
greatly to the gratification of M. de Montaigne, we were plentifully
supplied with oranges and citrons and olives. The bed curtains are cut
short and made either of cloth or serge. M. de Montaigne also regretted
the lack of those beds which they use as coverings in Germany; made
not like our beds, but of the finest down enclosed in an envelope of
well-bleached fustian. The beds used for lying upon in Germany are not
of this character, and could not be used as coverlets with comfort.
I verily believe that, if he had been alone with his own following, M.
de Montaigne would rather have gone to Cracow or to Greece by land than
have turned towards Italy. He took great pleasure in his visits to
strange countries, finding therein forgetfulness of his age and of his
ill-health, but he could never win over the rest of the company to this
view, each one of them being anxious to have done with travel and to
return. He was ever wont to say that, after an uneasy night, he would
rise eager and lively when he remembered he was about to sally forth to
see some fresh town or district. Never did I see him less subject to
fatigue or less querulous of his ailments; so full of spirit both on
the road and at his lodgings; so appreciative of everything he saw, and
eager for conversation with strangers; indeed I believe that this habit
drew off his thoughts from his infirmities. When the others complained
to him of his practice of leading the party over indirect and winding
roads, often returning to the spot whence they had set out (which he
would often do when he heard report of something worth seeing, or when
he saw reason for varying his plan of travel), he would reply that,
for his own part, he never set forth for any place other than that
in which he might at present find himself; and that it was impossible
he should miss or go aside from his route, because this route always
lay where places unfamiliar to him were to be seen; and that, provided
he did not fare the same road twice over, or see one place a second
time, he never considered that he had failed one jot in his original
purpose. As to Rome, which other people might easily see, he was less
fain to visit it than other places, because it was well known to every
one, and moreover every lackey was ready to give news of Florence and
Ferrara. He said that he seemed to be in like case to one who reads
some delightful story or good book, and dreads to turn the last page.
The pleasure of travel was to him so keen, that he hated the sight of
the place where he ought rightly to stop and rest; moreover, he devised
several projects of travelling exactly as the mood might seize him,
supposing that he should separate from his present companions.
On the Sunday morning, having a wish to see the Lake of Garda, a famous
lake of these parts and rich in the finest fish,[117] he hired three
horses for himself and Messieurs de Caselis and Mattecoulon at twenty
batzen apiece. M. d’Estissac hired two others for himself and the Sieur
du Hautoy, and with no escort--having left their own horses at this
place, Rovere, for the day--they rode eight miles to Torbole, where
they dined. This is a village under Tirolese jurisdiction, situated at
the head of the lake, and opposite to it is a small town and a castle
called Riva.[118] To this place they were taken by water, five miles,
and the same distance to return; they accomplished the journey in about
three hours, being rowed by five boatmen. They saw nothing at Riva save
a tower which had the appearance of great age, and the governor of
the place, the Seigneur Hortimato Madruccio, brother of the present
cardinal bishop of Trante. In looking down the lake the farther end is
not in view, for it is thirty-five miles long, while the width and all
they could see of it did not exceed five miles. The head of the lake
is in the county of Tirol, but all the lower part on either side is
under the Signiory of Venice, a region rich in fine churches, gardens
of olives, oranges, and other similar fruits. This lake is terribly
rough in times of tempest, and the surrounding mountains are more bare
and threatening than any of those we had hitherto passed, according
to the report of Messieurs.[119] On quitting Rovere they crossed the
Adisse, leaving the road to Verona to the left hand, and entered a deep
valley where they passed through a long village and a small town, the
road being the roughest and the view the most forbidding of any they
had yet experienced, by reason of these mountains which obstructed the
way. On leaving Torbole, they returned to Rovere to supper.
At this place we put our trunks on one of the rafts, which are called
_flottes_ in Germany, for conveyance to Verona by the river Adisse,
paying therefor a florin, and on the morrow I had the charge of this
transport. For supper they gave us poached eggs and a pike, together
with a great plenty of flesh of all kinds. On the next morning, Monday,
they set forth early, and following the valley, fairly populous but not
over fertile and flanked by high, rocky mountains, they arrived after
riding fifteen miles at Bourquet[120] in time for dinner. This town
lies within the county of Tirol, which is very large. In this matter
M. de Montaigne, when he asked whether this county included aught else
than the valley we had traversed and the mountain tops we had seen,
was informed that it contained divers other mountain valleys, fully as
extensive and fertile, and fine towns: that the county was, as we saw
it, like a robe in folds, but that, were it spread out, it would cover
a very wide stretch of country. The river was all this time on the
right hand, and when they resumed their journey after dinner they kept
the same road as far as Chiusa, a small fort in a mountain cleft above
the Adisse, which the Venetians had taken. They followed the course of
the river, descending a steep slope of solid rock over which the horses
could hardly keep their feet, and passing the fort aforesaid, where the
Venetian government, in whose territory they had been after a mile or
two on this side of Bourquet, kept twenty-five soldiers. They arrived
in time for bed at Volarne after riding twelve miles. At this place
they found wretched lodging, as everywhere else on the way to Verona. A
young lady, the daughter of the lord of the castle who was then absent,
sent M. de Montaigne a present of wine. On the morrow there were no
more mountains visible on the right of the road, and to the left even
the hills which lay upon the skirts of the plain were far distant.
The way was for some time over a sterile plain, but when it neared the
river it improved, and vines, trained upon trees, as is the fashion
in these parts, came in sight. After a journey of twelve miles they
arrived on All Saints’ Day before mass at Verona.
END OF VOL. I.
Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
Edinburgh & London
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The MS. of the Journal was incomplete at the time of its discovery,
certain leaves having been torn away from the beginning, but the
concluding paragraphs supply the date at which Montaigne must have left
home, _i.e._ June 22, 1580. He seems to have halted at the outset of
his journey near La Fère, which was at that time besieged by the forces
of the League under Marshal de Matigon, and to have gone thence to
Beaumont-sur-Oise, where the Journal begins on September 4th. The siege
of La Fère was undertaken by Henry III. as a counter-move to the recent
capture of Cahors by the Huguenots. Operations were some time delayed
by the shortness of money and by an outbreak of whooping-cough, the
first recorded appearance of this distemper. The king, the greater part
of the courtiers, and thousands of the people of Paris were attacked,
and the whole city was panic-stricken. When the Catholic leaders were
at length ready to move, they spoke of the task before them as “_un
siège de velours_,” anticipating little difficulty or danger; but they
lost two thousand men before the place fell on August 31st.
[2] For notice of Mattecoulon and D’Estissac, see Introduction.
[3] There is no exact clue to the identity of this person, but there
is a passage in the Essais, iii. 4, which seems to refer to him: “Je
fus entre plusieurs autres de ses amis, conduire à Soissons le corps de
Monsieur de Grammont, du siège de la Fère, où il fut tué.”
[4] Meaux was besieged by the English under Henry V. in 1422. The
Marché was the last part to surrender. After the English had gained
the town, Monstrelet writes (_Ch._ cclvii.): “Dedens laquelle ville se
loga le roy d’Angleterre et grant multitude de ses gens. Et tantost
après gaigna une petite ysle assez près du marchié, en laquelle il fit
asseoir plusieurs grosses bombardes qui moult terriblement craventèrent
les maisons du dit marchié et aussi les murailles d’icelleui.” Ed.
Paris, 1860.
[5] “Dans les premières années du xviii. siècle on venait encore
admirer à Saint Faron le somptueux tombeau d’Ogier, monument executé
certainement avant le xii^e. siècle, et suivant Mabillon dès le ix^e.,
fort peu de temps après la mort du héros. Ce n’est pas ici le lieu de
décrire ce tombeau, dont une gravure nous est heureusement restée; mais
pour faire voir l’étroit lieu qui unit les souvenirs historiques et les
traditions romanesques, nous ajuterons que devant les colonnes avancées
qui formaient une sorte de péristyle autour de la tombe d’Ogier et
de Benoît, son compagnon de guerre, on distinguait les statues de
Roland, d’Aude la fiancée de Roland, d’Olivier, et d’un prélat qui
semblait bénir l’union d’Aude et de Roland. Dans les mains d’Olivier
était un rouleau sur laquelle Mabillon avait lu ces deux vers: ‘_Audæ,
conjugium tibi do, Rollande, sororis, Perpetuumque mei socialis fœdus
amoris_’.... Ogier voulut-il consacrer dans l’abbaye de Saint Faron
un immortel souvenir aux héros de Roncevaux? et lui même aurait-il
ainsi présidé à l’érection d’un riche monument qui devait lui servir
de sepulchre? ou bien les moines de Saint Faron, plusieurs siècles
après sa mort auraient-ils eu la première pensée d’un mausolée dont ils
auraient emprunté les principaux détails de sculpture et d’architecture
au traditions populaires?”--_Histoire littéraire de la France_, xx. 690.
Gaston Paris (_Histoire poétique de Charlemagne_) remarks: “Le monument
de Saint Faron de Meaux tendrait aussi à faire croire qu’il (Ogier) a
été confondu avec Olivier.”--P. 307.
[6] He was a cleric attached to the diocese of Auxerre, and in 1546
became treasurer of the cathedral of Meaux. He was sent by Francis I.
to the East with instructions to acquire Greek MSS., and some of his
collections are now in the Bibliothèque Nationale. He died in 1590, and
was buried in the cathedral of Meaux.
[7] Epernay.
[8] Piero Strozzi, son of Filippo, and an exile. He entered the service
of Francis I. in 1542, and served under the French kings till his death
at the siege of Thionville in 1558.
[9] Catherine dei Medici. Strozzi was bitterly hostile to the Medicis
then ruling in Florence.
[10] September 8th, the Nativity of the Virgin.
[11] A Spaniard educated at Salamanca and a member of the Jesuit order
since 1562. He taught theology and philosophy at Paris, and was said to
have converted many Protestants. His success raised envy amongst the
other orders, and he was accused of heretical views on the immaculate
conception. De Thou, who was hostile to the Jesuits, speaks of him as
a man of the highest character and the most brilliant parts. His chief
work is a commentary on the Bible. He died at Rome in 1583.
[12] Montpensier was Louis de Bourbon, who died in 1582. Nevers was the
son of Federigo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua. He married Henrietta, the last
of the house of Cleves, and abandoned his Italian title for that of
Duc de Nevers. He died in 1595. The dispute referred to was over some
question of Court precedence.
[13] Châlons-sur-Marne.
[14] Antoinette de Bourbon, daughter of François de Bourbon, Comte de
Vendôme, and Marie de Luxembourg. She married in 1513 Claude, Duke of
Guise and Aumale, who died in 1550. She lived till 1583.
[15] Montier-en-Der.
[16] This strange story is worthy of remark on account of the notice
thereof by Ambroise Paré, the illustrious French surgeon. He writes
(_Œuvres_, vol. iii., p. 19, Paris, 1841): “Aussi estant à la
suite du roy à Vitry le François en Champagne, i’y vis un certain
personnage nommé Germain Garnier: aucuns le nommoient Germain Marie,
parcequ’estant fille estoit appellé Marie: jeune homme de taille
moyenne, trappé et bien amassé, portant barbe rousse assez espaisse,
lequel jusqu’au quinzième an de son aage avoit esté tenu pour fille,
attendu qu’en luy ne se monstroit aucune marque de virilité, et même
qu’il se tenôit avec les filles en habit de femme. Or ayant atteint
l’aage susdit, comme il estoit aux champs et poursuiuoit assez vivement
ses porceaux qui alloient dedans un blé, trouvant un fossé le voulut
affranchir: et l’ayant sauté, à l’instant se viennent à lui développer
les genitoires et la verge virile, s’estans rompu les ligamens par
les quels auparavant estoient tenus clos et enserrés (ce qui ne luy
aduint sans douleur) et s’en retourna, larmoyant en la maison de sa
mère, disant que ses trippes estoient sortiés hors du ventre: la quelle
fût fort estonnée de ce spectacle. Et ayant assemblé des Médicins
et Chirugiens pour la dessus auoir advis, on trouva qu’elle estoit
homme, et non plus fille: et tantost après avoir rapporté à l’Éuesque,
qu’estoit le défunt Cardinal de Lenoncourt, par son autorité et
assemblée du peuple, il receut le nom d’homme; et au lieu de Marie (car
il estoit ainsi nommé auparavant) il fut appellé Germain, et lui fût
baillé habit d’homme.”
Goulart (_Histoires admirables et mémorables_, Senlis, 1628) also
notices the story. In the _Novellæ_ of Morlini, which was first
published at Naples in 1520, Novella XXII. is of a character somewhat
similar, and was borrowed by Straparola for the ninth fable of the
thirteenth night of the _Piacevoli Notti_.
Montaigne refers to this matter again in the “Essays,” i. 20: “Passant
à Vitry le François je pûs voir un homme que l’Évesque de Soissons
avoit nommé Germain,” a manifest lapse of memory, as in the text above
he expressly states that he was not able to see Germain. His memory was
evidently treacherous. “Ma librairie est assise à un coin de ma maison:
s’il me tombe en fantaisie chose que j’y vueille aller chercher ou
escrire, de peur qu’elle ne m’eschappe en traversant seulement ma cour,
il faut que je la donne en garde à quelqu’autre. Si je m’enhardis en
parlant, à me détourner tant soit peu de mon fil, je ne faux jamais de
le perdre: qui fait que je me tiens en mes discours, contraint, sec, et
reserré. Les gens qui me servent, il faut que je les appelle par le nom
de leurs charges ou de leur païs: car il m’est tres-malaisé de retenir
des noms. Je diray bien qu’il a trois syllabes, que le son en est rude,
qu’il commence ou termine par telle lettre: et si je durois à vivre
longtemps, je ne crois pas que je n’oubliasse mon nom propre, comme ont
fait d’autres.”--_Essais_, ii. 17.
[17] Bar-le-Duc.
[18] Son of a certain Pierre de Trèves. The college he founded was
directed by the Jesuits up to the outbreak of the Revolution; the
chapel alluded to was added to the collegiate church of St Mark. He
became dean of the college, and died in 1582; and his portrait now
hangs in the museum at Bar-le-Duc.
[19] Manois.
[20] Charles VII.
[21] “Cy git tel qui fut mors lors que li milliaires courroit per mil
deux cens.” Querlon in his note in the edition of 1774 adds: “Entre
autres plusieurs tombeaux de Seigneurs de la Maison du Châtelet il est
rapporté dans les observations de l’Abbé Desfontaines (_Lettre 467_)
qu’un du Châtelet voulut y être enterré tout debout dans le creux d’un
pillier, disant que ‘jamais vilain ne passeroit par dessus son ventre.’”
[22] Épinal.
[23] Plombières.
[24] Jean d’Andelot, who fought on the Imperial side at Pavia. He was
of the family of Andelot of Montague.
[25] Bagnères de Bigorre.
[26] The Duke of Lorraine.
[27] Bussang, a well-known medicinal spring near the source of the
Moselle.
[28] Thann.
[29] Mülhausen. It was not incorporated with France till 1798.
[30] The host’s story is somewhat contradictory. He says that for
twenty years past he had been the pensioner of the King of France, and
in the same breath talks of having marched with John Casimir, the son
of Frederic III., Elector Palatine, to fight against this same king in
1567. Perhaps his pension may have been in arrear.
[31] La Fère had fallen on August 31st.
[32] “De nomine hujus urbis quidam scribunt, sed sine probatione, ipsum
tractum a Basalisco. Fuerunt alii qui priusquam evulgarentur omnes
libri Ammiani Marcellini (saltem qui extant) putabant Basileam sic
dictam a passagio et trajectu, qui in eo fuit loco anteaquā civitas
extrueretur, ut scilicet a passagio illo rectius Pastel quam Basel
primum fuerit vocata. At Ammianus irrita reddit hanc cōjecturam,
qui civitatē illam Græca voce βασιλείαν, id est regnū vocat, quasi
Regnopolim seu regiam civitatem.”--Munster, _Cosmographie_ 1566, p. 400.
[33] It is difficult to identify this personage; probably he was Simon
Grynæus _minor_ (so called to distinguish him from his grandfather
Grynæus _major_) who wrote on medicine and mathematics, and died in
September 1582. Or he might have been Samuel, a younger son of Grynæus
major, a jurisconsult who was syndic of Basel, and died in 1599. There
was also a John James, a famous theologian, who died in 1617.
[34] François Hottoman was a French jurisconsult, sprung from Silesian
parentage, born at Paris in 1524. Though he became a Calvinist, he
retained the favour of Catherine dei Medici, who sent him twice on
missions into Germany. He fled from Paris after St. Bartholomew, and
died at Basel in 1590. He was always in poverty through his attempts to
find the philosopher’s stone.
[35] Cardan, in his _De Rerum Varietate_, first published in 1553,
gives a description and drawing of smoke-jacks then used in Italy. Book
xii. c. 58.
[36] The Aar to Brugg.
[37] This sentence is confused and incorrect. The reference is
manifestly to the abbey of Königsfelden, close to Brugg, which was
founded in 1310 by the Empress Elizabeth and her daughter Agnes,
Queen of Hungary, on the spot where Albert of Austria, husband of the
former, was killed by John of Suabia in 1308. Duke Leopold and sixty
of the knights who fell at Sempach in 1386 were buried here, but were
disinterred by the order of Maria Theresa in 1770, and re-entombed at
St. Blasien, in the Black Forest. Querlon mistakes it for the abbey of
Mouri.
[38] Reuss.
[39] At this date there were thirteen cantons in the Confederation.
[40] Eaux-Chaudes, in Béarn.
[41] A village in the Department of the Gers.
[42] The ancient name was Aquæ Helvetiæ. In the time of Nero, according
to Tacitus (_Hist._, i. 67), it had all the appearance of a town: “In
modum municipii extructus locus, amœno salubrium aquarum usu frequens.”
But nothing is said about the personal investigations of Tacitus, to
which Montaigne alludes.
Querlon, in a note on this passage, remarks: “Je ne sais où l’écrivain
a pris cela. La mémoire trompoit quelquefois Montaigne come tous ceux
qui citent beaucoup, car on ne peut mettre cette érudition que sur son
compte.”
[43] In the spring of 1416 Poggio Bracciolini visited Baden, and
during his stay wrote to his friend, Niccolo Niccoli, a description
of the place, which is one of the most graphic and vivid pictures of
contemporary life. It is given in Shepherd’s “Life of Poggio.”
[44] “... à ceus qui se conforment à eux.” But sense seems to show that
a “_ne_” must have slipped out of the text.
[45] Rodolf II.
[46] 21 batzen = 1 Rhenish florin.
[47] Probably Charles, the younger brother of Henry II., who died in
1545.
[48] According to Querlon this gentleman was Charles de Montmorenci,
afterwards Duc d’Anville and Admiral of France, son of the Constable,
Anne de Montmorenci.
[49] _Fouasses_, which Querlon describes as “espèce de galettes.” See
also Rabelais, Book i., ch. xxv.
[50] Markdorf.
[51] This is probably meant for Buchhorn, a free imperial city. In
1810 it came under the rule of Würtemberg and received the name of
Friedrickshafen.
[52] Lindau.
[53] A silver coin worth about eighteen pence in English money.
[54] The _Cosmographia_ of Sebastian Münster, one of the earliest
guide-books.
[55] “Il me semble que je n’ay rencontré guères de manières qui ne
vaillent les nostres,” _Essais_, iii. 9. Montaigne’s liking for Germany
and German ways is very marked. It may perhaps be explained by a
passage in _Essais_, i. 25: “Mon père me donna en charge à un Allemand,
qui depuis est mort fameux medecin en France.”
[56] A gold coin of the time of Louis XI.
[57] Wangen.
[58] Isny.
[59] Now in the museum at Augsburg. The inscription is in Mommsen,
_Corpus Insc._, iii. n. 5987:--
IMP. CAESAR.
I. SEPTIMIUS. SEVERUS. PIUS.
PERTINAX. AUG. ARABIC.
ADIAB. PARTHICUS. MAXIMUS.
PONTIF. MX. TRB. POT. VIII.
IMP. XII. COS. II. P. P. PROCOS. ET
IMP. CAESAR. MRCUS. AUREL.
ANTONINUS. PIUS. AUG. TRB.
POT. IIII. PROCOS. ET.
A. CAMB. M. P.
XI.
[60] This passage seems to show that the servant who acted as
Montaigne’s amanuensis for this part of the diary was also his
_valet-de-chambre_.
[61] St. Gallen.