Michel de Montaigne

“ I witnessed the homage done by Spain for the kingdom of Portugal. A salvo of artillery was fired from Saint Angelo and from the palace, and the ambassador was escorted by trumpets and drums and the Pope’s archers. I did not go inside to be present at the speech-making and the other ceremonies. The Muscovite ambassador, who sat at a decorated window to behold the procession, remarked that he had been brought there to witness a great gathering; but in his country, when men spoke of troops of horses, they had in mind twenty-five or thirty thousand, wherefore he made light of the show before him. ”

“ These people are wont to despatch lackeys distances of seven or eight leagues to meet strangers, and to urge them to alight at their employer’s inn. It is no rare thing to find the host himself on horseback, and often a troop of men finely clad will follow on your track. All along this road M. de Montaigne was fain to jest with them, being vastly amused at the various offers every one of them made to him, and there was nothing they would not promise. One went so far as to offer the gift of a hare if only he would patronise a particular inn. ”

“ What made the prospect all the more delightful was that, beyond these fertile hills, we could distinguish the rugged and inaccessible summits of the Apennines, and the torrents descending therefrom, which, when they have lost their primal impulse, come down into the valleys as gracious and gentle brooks. While traversing these hills we could see, both on the heights and down below, many fertile level fields, some of them wider than the eye could cover on account of a slight slope in the distance, the landscape being of a beauty and richness beyond the power of a painter to imitate. ”

“ M. de Montaigne was annoyed to find such great number of Frenchmen in Rome,73 so great that almost every person he met in the streets addressed him in his own tongue. He found novelty in the sight of so mighty a court, thronged with prelates and churchmen, and declared that Rome was far fuller of rich men and coaches and horses than any other city he had ever seen, and that the seeming of the streets in various ways, and notably in the crowds of people, reminded him more of Paris than of any other place. The present city is placed along either bank of the Tiber. ”

“ Next we visited the duke’s arsenal, where there is a piece of ordnance thirty-five spans in length and having a bore one foot in diameter. The thick new wine which we drank and the turbid water drawn from the river made M. de Montaigne fear an attack of colic. On the door of every room in the inn is an inscription, “Ricordati della boletta,” and immediately a stranger arrives he must needs send his name and the number of his attendants to the magistrate, who will then give orders for lodgment, but if this be not done no one will take them in. ”

“ Again, divers of the nobles of the city entertained courtesans at their own charges in the sight of every one. M. de Montaigne hired for his use a gondola for day and night as well at a charge of two livres, about seventeen sous, with no extra expenditure for the boatman. Provisions are as dear here as in Paris, but it is the cheapest town in the world for living, for a train of servants is here quite useless, and every one goes about unattended. The cost of apparel is in like degree moderate; moreover, no one has occasion for a horse. ”

“ The freedom given under the government of Venice, and the conveniences of traffic, attract thither vast numbers of foreigners, but they are nevertheless like men in a stranger city; while here foreigners will be found in special offices carrying emolument and responsibility, for Rome is the home of all those connected with the Church. As many or perhaps more strangers may be seen in Venice (where the multitude of these far exceeds anything of the sort in France or Germany) , but not nearly so many resident or domiciled foreigners. ”

“ On our road the city did not show itself very plainly. Far on the left [Pg 72] hand were the Apennines, the aspect of the country being unpleasing, rugged, full of deep clefts, and unfitted for the passage of troops or ordnance. All the land is treeless, and a good part of it sterile, and lying open for ten miles and more, the houses being very sparse, as in all countries of this sort. Travelling thus we went thirty miles, and arrived on the last day of November—Saint Andrew’s day—at the Porta del Popolo of Rome. ”

“ In Rome the churches are inferior to those of the generality of the large towns of Italy; indeed, speaking generally of Italy and Germany, the churches will rarely be found to equal those of France. At Saint Peter’s, at the door of the new church, are to be seen certain flags draped as trophies, bearing inscriptions which tell that they are ensigns captured by the king from the Huguenots, but these inscriptions do not say where or when. ”

“ The priests and church officials and the College of Jesuits are all lodged together in a large modern palace, where lives also the governor, a cleric, to whom, as representative of the legate and the Pope, all applications must be addressed.
The holy place is a little house, very old and mean, built of brick,145 and much greater in length than in width. At the upper end thereof a barrier has been constructed, having on either side a gate of iron, and between these an iron grating, the whole fabric being rude and old and lacking in all richness of furniture. ”

“ On my journey hither I met divers troops of villagers from the Grisons and Savoy on their way to seek work in the Roman vineyards and gardens, and they told me they gained this wage every year. The city is all for the court and the nobility, every one adapting himself to the ease and idleness of ecclesiastic surroundings. There are no main streets of trade; what there are would seem small in a small town, palaces and gardens take up all the space. Nothing is to be seen like the Rue de la Harpe or de Saint Denis ”

“ In looking at this bank of the Tiber it is easy to believe [Pg 132] that of old the road all the way from Rome to Ostia ran past the habitations of men. Amongst other ruins we saw, about midway and on our left, a very beautiful tomb of a Roman prætor with an inscription quite perfect thereon. In Rome, the ruins, as a rule, only manifest themselves to us by the massive solidity of their construction. The ancients built thick walls of brick, and these they lined either with strips of marble or some other white stone, or with a kind of cement, or with thick tiles set thereupon. ”

“ According to the Italian taste the duchess is handsome, with an agreeable and inspiring face, full bust, and a bosom displaying itself as it may. M. de Montaigne fully recognised in her the charm by which she has been able to cajole this prince and to insure his devotion for a long time. The duke is a big dark man of about my [Pg 53] own height,54 large-limbed, with a face beaming with courtesy, and always wont to go uncovered through the crowd of servants, which thing is very seemly. His appearance is that of a healthy man of forty. ”

“ After a journey of eighteen miles we reached Padua in time for bed.
Here the hostelries can in no respect be compared with those of Germany. Certes they are less costly by one-third, and resemble those of France. The city is goodly, wide in extent, and in my opinion holds within its bounds an area at least as big as that of Bordeaux; but the streets are narrow and ugly, lacking both in people and in seemly dwellings. Its situation is very pleasant, [Pg 10] in an open plain stretching wide on every side. ”

“ The rooms themselves in Italy are vastly inferior, no saloons, the windows large, and all uncovered save by a huge wooden shutter, [Pg 50] which would exclude all daylight if it should be necessary to keep off the sun or the wind, an inconvenience which M. de Montaigne found still more intolerable than the lack of curtains in Germany. The chambers are wretched boxes, meanly curtained, and never more than one set in a room. Under the hangings is a bed on castors, and any one who is averse to lying hard will find himself in evil case. There is as great, or greater, want of linen ”

“ In the bath-house there are other chambers where the water only comes in by drops under which any affected member is placed, and they told M. de Montaigne that the forehead was the part most often treated for ailments of the head. At certain points on these channels small cabins of stone have been constructed, to which the patients may repair, and having opened the hole communicating with the channel, they quickly fall into a sweat through the exhalations and heat of the water. There are also rooms for dry heat, made in various fashions, but mud baths are what they chiefly use. ”

“ In sooth this road was formerly, for the most part of the way, uncomfortable to travel, whereas now it has been made level enough for coaches as far as Loreto. After travelling ten miles we arrived in time for bed at Narni, which in Latin is called Narnia.
This little town belongs to the Church. It stands on the top of a rock at the base of which flows the river Negra, or in Latin Nar, one side of the town being situated so as to overlook a pleasant plain through which the river goes joyously along and winds in marvellous fashion. In the public place is a very fine fountain. ”

“ At Siena we saw for ourselves how a man trusted a horse to a certain Fleming, who was travelling in company with us, alone, unknown, and a stranger to the owner of the horse, simply on the condition that the horse hire should be paid before starting. In every other respect the horse is at your disposal, under your promise that you will leave him where you have agreed. M. de Montaigne, adapting himself, as was his wont, to the custom of the country, fell into the way of dining early and supping late, for in the good houses the dinner is only served at noon, and the supper at nine o’clock ”

“ In a certain part of the street where the ladies can best see them certain nobles run the quintain, mounted on fine horses, and make a graceful show, for the nobility of this country commonly [Pg 107] show greater knowledge of horsemanship than of aught else. The scaffold which M. de Montaigne caused to be erected cost three crowns, and was placed in an excellent situation in the street.
At this season all the fair gentlewomen of Rome let themselves be seen freely, for in Italy they do not go masked as in France, but with all the face uncovered. ”

“ M. de Montaigne would not admit that liberty existed in Rome equal to that enjoyed in Venice, and would advance by way of arguments the facts that houses were so insecure against robbers that people who might bring home with them a large amount of property usually determined to give their purses in charge of the bankers of the city so as not to find their strong boxes rifled, which mishap had befallen many ”

“ According to custom, only the ambassador was with the Pope, who had by his side a bell which he would ring when he might wish any one to be introduced. The ambassador was seated, uncovered, at his left hand; the Pope himself never uncovers before any one, nor can any ambassador remain covered in his presence. M. d’Estissac entered first, then M. de Montaigne, then M. de Mattecoulon, and last M. d’Hautoy. After taking a step or two into the chamber, in a corner of which sits the Pope, the incomer, whoever he may be, kneels and waits for the Pope to give him benediction. ”

“ Moreover, all through Italy they eat beans raw, and peas and almonds green, and rarely cook their artichokes. The floors are paved with tiles. They hold in their oxen by the nose, by means of a piece of iron which pierces the division of the nostrils, the same as that used for buffaloes. Their baggage mules, which are excellent and very plentiful, are not shod before in our fashion, but with a round shoe, [Pg 191] which is larger than the foot and goes all round it. At divers spots there are monks whose wont it is to give holy water to travellers, and to look for an alms in return ”