His Writings, Other Than De
Peregrinatione, Are Three Translations From Machiavelli.[40]
Turler addresses to two young German noblemen his book "written on
behalf of such as are desirous to travell, and to see foreine cuntries,
and specially of students....
Mee thinkes they do a good deede, and well
deserve of al men, that give precepts for traveyl. Which thing,
althoughe I perceive that some have done, yet have they done it here and
there in sundrie Bookes and not in any one certeine place." A discussion
of the advantages of travel had appeared in Thomas Wilson's Arte of
Rhetorique (1553),[41] and certain practical directions for avoiding
ailments to which travellers were susceptible had been printed in Basel
in 1561,[42] but Turler's would seem to be the first book devoted to the
praise of peregrination. Not only does Turler say so himself, but
Theodor Zwinger, who three years later wrote Methodus Apodemica,
declares that Turler and Pyrckmair were his only predecessors in this
sort of composition.[43]
Pyrckmair was apparently one of those governors, or Hofmeister,[44] who
accompanied young German noblemen on their tours through Europe. He drew
up a few directions, he declares, as guidance for himself and the Count
von Sultz, whom he expected shortly to guide into Italy. He had made a
previous journey to Rome, which he enjoyed with the twofold enthusiasm
of the humanist and the Roman Catholic, beholding "in a stupor of
admiration" the magnificent remnants of classic civilization and the
institutions of a benevolent Pope.[45]
From Plantin's shop in Antwerp came in 1587 a narrative by another
Hofmeister - Stephen Vinandus Pighius - concerning the life and travels of
his princely charge, Charles Frederick, Duke of Cleves, who on his grand
tour died in Rome. Pighius discusses at considerable length,[46] in
describing the hesitancy of the Duke's guardians about sending him on a
tour, the advantages and disadvantages of travel. The expense of it and
the diseases you catch, were great deterrents; yet the widening of the
mind which judicious travelling insures, so greatly outweighed these and
other disadvantages, that it was arranged after much discussion, "not
only in the Council but also in the market-place and at the
dinner-table," to send young Charles for two years to Austria to the
court of his uncle the Emperor Maximilian, and then to Italy, France,
and Lower Germany to visit the princess, his relations, and friends, and
to see life.
Theodor Zwinger, who was reputed to be the first to reduce the art of
travel into a form and give it the appearance of a science,[47] died a
Doctor of Medicine at Basel. He had no liking for his father's trade of
furrier, but apprenticed himself for three years to a printer at Lyons.
Somehow he managed to learn some philosophy from Peter Ramus at Paris,
and then studied medicine at Padua, where he met Jerome Turler.[48] As
Doctor of Philosophy and Medicine he occupied several successive
professorships at Basel.
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![English Travellers Of The Renaissance By Clare Howard
- His writings, other than De
Peregrinatione, are three translations from Machiavelli.[40]
Turler addresses to two young German noblemen his - Page 12](../images/travel.jpg)
