Montaigne’s journal belongs to one of the earlier works of travel literature to Italy collected here that was written in French language. At the age of forty-seven, he set out to Italy through Switzerland, Germany and Austria. For about a year and a half, he spent his time improving his Italian and observing different cultures and sceneries. Although more immediate motivation for his decision to travel lied in his deteriorating health, Montaigne was certainly interested in Italy for its art and culture, and experiencing its flourishing city-states. Italian Renaissance, which was at its zenith around this time made it fashionable to travel to Italy for French who could afford to do so.[1] There was also a growing appreciation for Italian art, literature and architecture at the court of France.[2] Another contributing factor that made Montaigne leave France was the tumultuous political landscape of the time.[3] For a prolonged period in the second half of the 16th century, the country was torn apart religiously and politically. Montaigne was a dilligent observer and writer. Unlike other travel logs that mentions Camposanto and its legend of holy earth shortly, his entry of Camposanto starts from the architectural description and goes into the details of the legend. Moreover, he draws a comparison to a cemetry in Rome where the earth similarly consumes the buried bodies fast.
[1] Leo O. Forkey, Montaigne’s Trip to Italy, 1580-1581, The Frenche Review, 13:2, 122-128, 1939. 123.
[2] Melinda A. Cro, Montaigne’s Italian Voyage: Alterity and Linguistic Appropriation in the “Journal de voyage” South Atlantic Review, 78:3, 2013, 150-166. 154.
[3] Forkey, 124.
Edition: Journal de Voyage de Michel de Montaigne en Italie, par la Suisse et l’Allemagne en 1580 & 1581, 3 vols. (3: 185-191, Rom/Paris: Le Jay, 1774).
Translation:
The Journal of Montaigne’s Travels in Italy by way of Switzerland and Germany in 1580 and 1581, translated and edited with an introduction and notes by W.G. Waters. (Vol. 3: 115-117, London: 1903).
Transcription
“Pour les saintes reliques, les ouvrages rares, les marbres précieux et les pierres d’un grandeur & d’un travail admirables, on en trouve ici tout autant que dans aucune autre ville d’Italie.
Je vis avec beaucoup de plaisir le bâtiment du cimetiere, qu’on appelle Campo-Santo; il est d’une grandeur extraordinaire, long de trois cens pas, large de cent et quarré; le corridor qui regne autour a quarante pieds de largeur, est couvert de plomb et pavée de marbre. Les murs sont couverts d’anciennes peintures, parmi lesquelles il y en a d’un Gondi de Florence, tige de la maison de ce nom.
Les Nobles de la ville avoient leurs tombeaux sous ce corridor; on y voit encore les noms & les armes d’environ quatre cens familles, dont il en reste à peine quatre, échappées des guerres & des ruines de cette ancienne ville, qui d’ailleurs est peuplée, mais habitée par des étrangers. De ces Familles nobles, dont il y a plusieurs Marquis, Comtes & autres Seigneurs, une partie est répandue en différens endroits de la Chrétienté, où elles ont passé successivement.
Au milieu de cet édifice, est un endroit découvert où l’on continue d’inhumer les morts. On assure ici généralement que les corps qu’on dépose se gonflent tellement dans l’espace de huit heures, qu’on voit sensiblement s’élever la terre; que huit heures après ils diminuent & s’affaitsent; qu’enfin dans huit autres heures les chairs se consument, de manière qu’avant les ving-quatre heures soient passées, il ne reste plus que les os tout nuds. Ce phénomène est semblable à celui du cimetiere de Rome, où si l’on met le corps d’un Romain, la terre le repousse aussitôt. Cet endroit est pavé de marbre comme le corridor. On a mis pardessus le marbre, de la terre à la hauteur d’une ou de deux brasses et l’on dit que cette terre fut apportée de Jérusalem dans l’expédition que les Pisans y firent avec une grande armée. Avec la permission de l’Evêque, on prend un peu de cette terre qu’on répand dans les autres sépulchres, par la persuasion où l’on est que les corps s’y consumeront plus promtement: ce qui paroît d’autant plus vraisemblable, que dans le cimetiere de la ville in ne voit presque point d’ossements et qu’il n’y a pas d’endroit où l’on puisse les ramasser & les renfermer, comme on fait dans d’autres villes.
[…]
Les montagnes voisines produisent de très beau marbre et il y a dans la ville beaucoup d’ecellens ouvriers pour le travailler.”
Translation
“In no other city of Italy is to be found such vast store of holy relics and exquisite works, and stone and marble work of such rarity, grandeur, and marvellous workmanship.
I was immensely pleased with the cemetery, which they call the Campo Santo. It is of extraordinary size, and rectangular, three hundred paces long and one hundred wide, and surrounded by a corridor forty paces wide, covered with lead and paved with marble. The walls are covered with old paintings, and amonst them is a portrait of the Florentine Gondi, by whom the family of that name was founded.
The nobles of the city have their burial-places under this covered corridor. Here are to be seen the names and armorial devices of some four hundred familes, of whom not more than four now dwell in Pisa, the survivors of the wars and destruction which have fallen uplon this ancient city. The population is now very scanty, the place being chiefly taken up by strangers. Many persons of rank belonging to the noble families referred to are still living in other parts of hristendom whither they have betaken themselves.
In the midst of this enclosure is an open space where the dead are still buried. I was told positively by every one that any corpse interred there swells so greatly some eight hours afterwoards that the ground may be seen to rise; in the next eight it subsides, and in eight hours more the flesh is entirely consumed, so that four-and-twenty hours after burial nothing is left but bare bones. This strange fact resembles another told of that cemetery at Rome which rejects immediately the body of any Roman buried therein. This enclosure is paved, like the corridor, which marble, upon which is laid earth one or two cubits deep, which earth, they declare, was brought from Jerusalem, the Pisans having sent a great expedition for the carrying out of this purpose. With the bishop’s consent a little of this earth may be taken and mixed with that of other graves, the belief is a plausible one, because in this particular cemetery bones are very rarely seen, scarcely any indeed, neither is there any place where they are collected and reinterred, as in other cities.
[…]
From the neighbouring mountains they quarry the finest marble, which is here worked by divers distinguished craftsmen.”