2023-12-16 09:30:55
On June 22, 1580, after the publication of Trials, Michel de Montaigne leaves his Perigord castle for a long journey on horseback. Accompanied by gentlemen and his “people”, he skips and frolics towards Switzerland, Germany and Italy. Her Travel diaryrepublished by Bouquins et Mollat, the great Bordeaux bookseller, has been widely circulated.
Discovered two centuries later in his castle, among the jumble of abandoned papers, the manuscript was written in part by his secretary, then by Montaigne himself, taking pride in writing in Italian. Over time, it has undergone multiple redactions, erasing the abundance of occurrences on Montaigne’s intestinal discomfort and kidney ailments, suffering from gravel, the stone disease. Seeking to cure himself of his renal colic, hoping to eliminate his stones, he trotted from thermal baths to thermal baths to drink their waters and bathe there.
This logbook, censored many times, continues to attract exegetes. Nina Mueggler and Laura Piccina, the new “translators” of the present version – embellished with a rich iconography – multiply insights and footnotes to facilitate understanding for the 21st century reader.
Precursor of Guide Michelin or Backpacker’s Guidethe Travel diary by Montaigne contains many considerations on the landscapes, the appearance of the towns, the inns, the services and table manners, the wines served there, even the discomfort of bedding and the annoying Germanic custom of wandering duvets, impossible to land.
Montaigne breezes through Venice, lingers in Florence, travels through Tuscany, stays in Rome, “city patched together by foreigners”which enchants him, finds the churches less beautiful than elsewhere and is surprised not to hear the bells.
It is also a precious document on Renaissance Europe prey to the heartbreaks and controversies of the Reformation, traversed by this spirit eager for encounters and discoveries, suffering a thousand deaths, assailed by the intractable ills of its body which cannot do not alter his sense of observation. Enthroned mayor of Bordeaux in spite of himself by the jurats of the city, he hastened slowly to return to the banks of the Garonne and occupy this office which he neither asked for nor wanted.
For nearly eighteen months, far from home, Montaigne, a tireless traveler, had sought ways of living and thinking that were not his own.
Travel diary in Italy through Switzerland and Germany. Bouquins/Mollat, 338 p. illustrated, €32
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