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 xiie. siècle, et suivant Mabillon dès le ixe., 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.
[62] The abbey of Kempten was the most important of South German monasteries. It was founded by Benedictines from St. Gallen in the eighth century, became an imperial free town in 1289, and in 1360 the abbot was made a prince. The old town, as Montaigne saw it, is still Protestant, and a new Catholic suburb has grown up outside the walls. The legend of Hildegarde’s burial there and that she was once abbess of the convent seems to be false.
[63] Iller.
[64] Pfronten.
[65] Füssen.
[66] Hohenschwangau.
[67] St. Magnus was the first abbot of Kempten.
[68] Schongan.
[69] Landsberg.
[70] Schweikhart, son of Count George von Helfenstein. He was president of the Imperial Court at Innsbruck from 1562-1564. He was a man of learning and literary taste, and translated into German the works of S. Basil and the story of Barlaam and Josaphat. He died in 1591.
[71] Livy.
[72] Fuggers.
[73] Augsburg was one of the first cities in Europe to be supplied with water by artificial means. The old water-works are still to be seen. The view of Augsburg in Münster’s Cosmographia shows them exactly as Montaigne writes of them.
[74] Variants of this legend are numerous. Hector Boece (cap. ix.) affirms there are no rats in Buchan, and Sir Robert Gordon, writing on Sutherlandshire, says: “If they come thither from other parts in ships they die presently as soon as they do smell the air of that country.” In Sir John Sinclair’s “Statistical Account of Scotland,” in an account of Roseneath, in Argyleshire, it is stated: “From a prevailing opinion that the soil of this parish is hostile to that animal, some years ago a West India planter actually carried out to Jamaica several casks of Roseneath earth, with a view to kill the rats that were destroying his sugar canes.”
[75] “And this their entrance is so curiously admitted, as many strangers desirous to see the fashion, suffer themselves of purpose to be locked out at night, and willing give a reward to the souldiers letting them in.”—Fynes Moryson, Itinerary, i. 20.
[76] In 1552: Münster, Cosmographia (1559), p. 607.
[77] Sauerbrunnen.
[78] Bruck.
[79] Wilhelm, who married Renée of Lorraine, and abdicated in 1596.
[80] “... denique Laici usque adeo persuasum habent nullos Cœlibes esse ut in plerisque parochiis non aliter velint Presbyterum tolerare, nisi Concubinam habeat, quo vel sic suis sit consuetum uxoribus, quæ nec sic quidem usque quaque sunt extra periculam.” Nicolaus de Clemangis, De Præsulibus Simoniacis, p. 165.
[81] Probably the Starnberger See. This road was made by the Romans.
[82] The Kochel, or Walchen See.
[83] Mittenwald.
[84] Seefeld.
[85] Martinswand.
[86] Innsbruck.
[87] Ferdinand of Tirol, son of the Emperor Ferdinand I. and brother of Maximilian II. He was born 1537 and died 1595.
[88] The tomb of Maximilian I. in the Hofkirche at Innsbruck.
[89] Cardinal Andreas, the son of Ferdinand of Tirol and Philippina Welser. He was made a cardinal at nineteen years of age by Gregory XIII. He became legate in Germany, and Philip II. at one time wanted to make him governor of the Netherlands. He died in Rome in 1600, and lies buried in the church of S. Maria dell’ Anima. He was about twenty-four when Montaigne saw him.
[90] Karl, the second son of the Archduke.
[91] Bouchet, sugar and water flavoured with cinnamon.
[92] Nef, which, according to Querlon, here means, “étui ou boîte où se met le couvert des princes et des rois.”
[93] Ferdinand I. left nine daughters. The Three Queens were Margaret, who died in 1566; Helena, who died in 1570; and Magdalen, who was alive at the time of Montaigne’s visit. Barbara was duchess of Ferrara, Joanna, grand-duchess of Florence, and Catherine duchess of Mantua.
[94] Charles was crowned at Bologna in 1530. The monument referred to still stands in the pass of Lueg on the Brenner.
[95] “M. de Montaigne disoit que c’estoit la lune de ses tretes.” Querlon remarks, by way of explanation: “Parceque cette poussière obscurcissait le jour, ne lui laissoit, ainsi que la lune, que ce qu’il falloit de clarté pour se conduire.”
[96] Stertzing. Here the watchman still calls the hours of the night as he did at Innsbruck in Montaigne’s time.
[97] Eisack, a stream which rises on the Brenner and joins the Adige near Botzen.
[98] “Qu’elles se laissent testonner et peigner jusques aus oreilles.”
[99] Leonore, the only one of his children who survived him. In alluding to those who died in infancy he says, Essais, ii. 8: “Ils me meurent touts en nourrice: mais Leonor, une seule fille qui est echappée à cette infortune, a attainct six ans et plus.”
[100] Klausen.
[101] Kolmann.
[102] Botzen.
[103] In his Voyage faict en 1600, the Duc de Rohan puts this matter in a different light: “Je passay à Trente nullement agréable—et si ce n’estoit pour ce qu’elle est demy Italienne, me rejouissait de sortir de la petite barbarie et beuvette universelle, je n’en parlerois pas: ne trouvant point que tous les mathematiciens de nostre temps puissent jamais si bien trouver le mouvement perpetuel que les Allemans le font faire à leur goblets ... cette si grand frequentation de bouteils obscurcit tellement leurs autres belles parties que cela les rends méprisables et inaccostables de tout le monde. Car ils ne pensent faire bonne chère ny permettre amitié ou fraternité, comme ils disent, à personne sans y apporter le seau plein de vin pour la sceler à perpetuité.” The love of eating and drinking is still a marked characteristic amongst the Tirolese.
[104] Branzoll.
[105] Adige.
[106] Trent.
[107] Salurn.
[108] Montaigne shows himself here less judicial than usual. He had evidently been so well pleased with his sojourn in Germany that he looked on everything over the frontier with a jaundiced eye.
[109] It was begun in 1212 and is built entirely of marble. The tower alluded to is the Torre di Piazza, in which was hung Rengo, the great bell of Trent.
[110] The work of Vincenzio Vicentini, 1534.
[111] Bernardo Clesio, bishop from 1514 to 1539. He was made cardinal in 1530.
[112] The relations of the bishops of Trent with the counts of Tirol, which resulted in the quasi subjection of the first named, had been embroiled by disputes over the right of taxation which the counts of Tirol claimed over Church property in Trent ever since the twelfth century. Cardinal Madruccio held the see from 1567 to 1600. He was a member of an illustrious family of the city.
[113] Probably Castel Beseno, a notable stronghold in these times. Or it might have been Castelbarco, afterwards a Venetian frontier fortress.
[114] Roveredo. It had formerly been Venetian, but was now under Tirol as a fee of the bishop of Trent.
[115] In the Essais, iii. 13, Montaigne writes of his horror of dew and vapours.
[116] Another instance of his love of German customs.
[117] Garda has always been famous for its fish, and the fishing industry gave its name to the town at the outlet, Peschiera. Cardan (De Vita Prop., c. xxx.) tells of a mighty pike he ate at Sirmio after a narrow escape from drowning in the lake. In Coryat’s time it was celebrated for its abundance of “Carpes, Troutes, and Eeles.”
[118] Now an important town at the head of the lake.
[119] In describing this excursion the secretary uses sometimes the first and sometimes the third person plural, but this sentence seems to show that he did not accompany the others, and on leaving Roveredo he went to Verona on a raft in charge of the luggage.
[120] Borghetto.
Transcriber’s Notes
Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations in hyphenation have been standardised but all other spelling and punctuation remains unchanged.