For The Germans, With The English, Were The Most
Indefatigable Travellers Of All Nations.
Like the English, they suddenly
woke up with a start to the idea that they were barbarians on the
Outskirts of civilization, and like Chicago of the present day, sent
their young men "hustling for culture." They took up assiduously not
only the Renaissance ideal of travel as a highly educating experience,
by which one was made a complete man intellectually, but also the
Renaissance conviction that travel was a duty to the State. Since both
Germany and England were somewhat removed from the older and more
civilized nations, it was necessary for them to make an effort to learn
what was going on at the centre of the world. It was therefore the duty
of gentlemen, especially of noblemen, to whom the State would look to be
directed, to search out the marts of learning, frequent foreign courts,
and by knowing men and languages be able to advise their prince at home,
after the manner set forth in Il Cortegiano. It must be remembered
that in the sixteenth century there were no schools of political
economy, of modern history or modern languages at the universities. A
sound knowledge of these things had to be obtained by first-hand
observation. From this fact arose the importance of improving one's
opportunities, and the necessity for methodical, thorough inquiry, which
we shall find so insisted upon in these manuals of advice.
Hieronymus Turlerus claims that his De Peregrinatione (Argentorati,
1574) is the first book to be devoted to precepts of travel.
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