“Montaigne goes to Rome: a sixteenth-century traveller extraordinaire,” Frances Muecke (Australian Academy of the Humanities; University of Sydney)
Date: 7 November, 2015
When: 2:00pm-3:00pm
Where: Nicholson Museum, The Quadrangle, The University of Sydney
Cost: Free
RSVP: Register online here: http://whatson.sydney.edu.au/events/published/montaigne-goes-to-rome-a-sixteenth-century-traveller-extraordinaire
On 22 June 1580 Montaigne, then aged 47, set off from his home, the Chateau de Montaigne, thirty miles east of Bordeaux, on a trip to Rome.
Being Montaigne, the most significant French writer of the 16th century, he kept a compellingly interesting journal of his travels. Never intended for publication, the manuscript lay unnoticed in the Chateau until it was discovered in a chest in 1770.
Despite what he calls the feebleness of his age and health, Montaigne was an indefatigable traveller. He ‘lives as the Romans’ do, always ready to comment on regional differences, inns, beds, food and service. He goes out of his way to see sites, and tries to find interesting locals for conversation.
What then does he make of 16th century Rome? There are too many French people there. The appearance of the streets, and their crowds remind him of Paris. It is not safe to go about the streets by night and one should not keep valuables even in the houses – deposit them in a bank. There is nothing special about the beauty of the women, even though Rome has a reputation for this. The churches in Rome are less beautiful than in most of the good towns of Italy, and in general it may be said that the churches, both in Italy and Germany are less beautiful than in France.
And what of his reaction to the ruins of Rome? Montaigne came to some challenging conclusions: the site contains many Romes destroyed and rebuilt. What could be seen in his day was not the great Rome of antiquity – that was buried far below the surface. He said that, ‘one saw nothing of ancient Rome but the sky under which it had stood and the plan of its site.’
Frances Muecke is an Elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and an Honorary Associate in the Department of Classics and Ancient History. She is also a long-standing Friend of the Nicholson Museum.
