{"id":1237,"date":"2021-05-28T20:31:15","date_gmt":"2021-05-28T20:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dlf.uzh.ch\/sites\/camposanto\/?p=1237"},"modified":"2021-05-31T15:40:44","modified_gmt":"2021-05-31T15:40:44","slug":"charles-louis-de-montesquieu-1689-1755-voyage-en-italie-c-1730","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dlf.uzh.ch\/sites\/camposanto\/charles-louis-de-montesquieu-1689-1755-voyage-en-italie-c-1730\/","title":{"rendered":"Charles-Louis de Montesquieu (1689-1755), Voyage en Italie<\/em> (c. 1730)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]\n

Charles-Louis de Montesquieu, better known today as a political philosopher, was also a judge and a writer. Besides practicing the law, he devoted himself to studying and writing. By the 1720s, he became an established writer and thinker, and in 1728 he embarked on a grand tour of Europe. <\/em>Voyage en Italie was written in journal form, a style popular at the time for published travel accounts. Montesquieu\u2019s interests range from the geographical, historical and social to the architectural and artistic characteristics of monuments that he visited. As for the Camposanto, it is notable that Montesquieu mentions not only the legend of the holy earth, but also writes a brief critique of the paintings. Although his description of the paintings is selective, Montesquieu seems to have found \u201cTriumph of the Death\u201d and \u201cHell\u201d especially impressive. \/ DJ<\/em><\/p>\n

Montesquieu, Voyages de Montesquieu (1728) (excerpt)<\/a><\/div><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Edition:<\/strong> Charles de Montesquieu, Voyages de Montesquieu, ed. Albert de Montesquieu, 2 vols. (Bordeaux: Gounouilhou, 1894-1896), 1:158-159<\/span>.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text]\n

Transcription<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Au-dehors de l\u2019\u00c9glise, et \u00e0 cot\u00e9, est le Campo-Santo<\/em>. C\u2019est un cimeti\u00e8re fait de la terre que les vaisseaux pisans port\u00e8rent autrefois de la Palestine, et qu\u2019on dit avoir eu autrefois la propri\u00e9t\u00e9 de faire enfler les corps et de les dess\u00e9cher aussit\u00f4t. Le cimiti\u00e8re est carr\u00e9-long, ferm\u00e9 d\u2019une muraille, autour de laquelle r\u00e8gne une galerie en forme de clo\u00eetre, par\u00e9e de marbre. C\u2019est l\u00e0 que l\u2019on trouve un beau recueil de peinture ancienne, parce que les murs de ces galeries sont peints \u00e0 fresque, et on y voit bien \u00e0 plein le mauvais go\u00fbt de ce temps-l\u00e0. C\u2019est l\u00e0 que l\u2019on voit les Anges en courroux tra\u00eener en Enfer les rois, reines, pr\u00e9lats, papes, moines et pr\u00eatres, sans r\u00e9mission; mais on n\u2019y voit point de peintre. On voit que l\u2019effort du g\u00e9nie a \u00e9t\u00e9 de trouver des figures de Diables les plus affreuses. Il y a aussi des peintures de Giotto, qui paroissent un peu d\u2019un meilleur go\u00fbt que les autres. Il y a tout un c\u00f4t\u00e9 qui est celui qui est expos\u00e9 au midi, qui a \u00e9t\u00e9 fait par un seul peintre. L\u2019autre c\u00f4t\u00e9 a \u00e9t\u00e9 fait par plusieurs et en grand nombre. On dit qu\u2019ils mouroient tous parce qu\u2019ils travailloient dans un lieu expos\u00e9 au nord. Il y a un bout qui n\u2019\u00e9toit pas fini, et qu\u2019un peintre plus moderne a voulu finir dans le go\u00fbt ancien; mais il n\u2019a attrap\u00e9e ni le go\u00fbt ancien, ni le nouveau.”<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text]\n

Translation<\/strong><\/p>\n

Outside the Church, and next to it, is the Campo-Santo. It is a cemetery made of the earth that Pisan ships once brought from Palestine; this earth is said to have had the property of making bodies swell and dry up immediately. The cemetery is square, enclosed by a wall, around which is a gallery in the shape of a cloister adorned with marble. It is there that we find a beautiful collection of old paintings because the walls of these galleries are painted in fresco, and one can well see the bad taste of that time. It is there that we see the angels in wrath dragging the kings, queens, prelates, popes, monks and priests into Hell without mercy; but one does not see any painter there. One can see that the effort of genius was to find the most dreadful figures of devils. There are also paintings by Giotto, which seem to be in slightly better taste than the others. There is a whole side, which is exposed to the south, made by a single painter. The other side was done by several painters and in great number. It is said that they all died because they worked in a place exposed to the north. There is a part that was not finished, and which a more modern painter wanted to finish in the old taste; but he captured neither old nor new taste.<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Charles-Louis de Montesquieu, better known today as a political philosopher, was also a judge and a writer. Besides practicing the law, he devoted himself to studying and writing. By the 1720s, he became an established writer and thinker, and in 1728 he embarked on a grand tour of Europe. Voyage en Italie was written […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":541,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,7,8,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-18th-century","category-english","category-french","category-travel-account"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dlf.uzh.ch\/sites\/camposanto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dlf.uzh.ch\/sites\/camposanto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dlf.uzh.ch\/sites\/camposanto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dlf.uzh.ch\/sites\/camposanto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/541"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dlf.uzh.ch\/sites\/camposanto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1237"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/dlf.uzh.ch\/sites\/camposanto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1478,"href":"https:\/\/dlf.uzh.ch\/sites\/camposanto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1237\/revisions\/1478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dlf.uzh.ch\/sites\/camposanto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dlf.uzh.ch\/sites\/camposanto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dlf.uzh.ch\/sites\/camposanto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}