Travel Writers 2: Moralists and Tourists.

Travel Writers 2: Moralists and Tourists 

I have been trying to get my head around ‘travel books’, the various types and styles that are around. It is obvious these range in style from the documentary to the evocative, from literary to journalistic, and from the humorous to the serious. There are many different types of travelers that produce these books. They include military officers, missionaries, explorers, scientists, pilgrims, and migrants. They leave home, experience something different and write about it. In the early days many more were missionaries.

 Pilgrims and other Early Travel Writers 

The Biblical epistles must be some of the earliest travel documents, though having a moral purpose, they tell us something about the travels of Paul and other disciples.

Paul the Missionary

The Biblical Paul moved about a lot, though he must have had a home in Antioch as he left for his for three of his missionary journeys start from there (between AD 46 and AD 64).

He also stayed in Corinth for a while, living there for nearly two years with Jews by the name of Aquila and Priscilla who were tent makers. Their house became his home, his place of work (as he helped them make tents), and the place he began preaching. It is said this house-church became the model for other house churches. And looking at later Christian church architecture you can see how a house, with a courtyard in front of it became the model for all later Christian churches.

Paul stayed there for the next year and a half, teaching the word of God.
(Acts,18:11)

There Paul became acquainted with a Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, who had recently arrived from Italy with his wife, Priscilla. They had been expelled from Italy as a result of Claudius Caesar's order to deport all Jews from Rome. Paul lived and worked with them, for they were tentmakers just as he was.(Acts,18:2-3)

And at the end of his life he lived in Rome for two years.

For the next two years, Paul lived in his own rented house. He welcomed all who visited him, proclaiming the Kingdom of God with all boldness and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ. And no one tried to stop him.(Acts,28:30-31)

Here ends the Acts of the Apostles. We do not know when or whether there was a trial. We know though that both Peter, who became the Bishop of Rome, and Paul, were killed during the fierce persecution of Emperor Nero. (between the year 64-67)

Petrarch a Traveller and Moralist 

Arezzo near Florence

Petrarch had several homes in Italy. He was born in Arezzo (1304), in a village near Florence, and later he moved to Avignon where he worked for many years, and his last home was near Padua where he retired and died in 1374.

Petrach's house near Padua, and where he died

But though he stayed in Italy this early Roman travelled widely in Europe and has been called "the first tourist" because he travelled just for pleasure. 

He also wrote about his travels, for instance his ascent of Mont Ventoux. His companions who stayed at the bottom he called frigida incuriositas ("a cold lack of curiosity"). 

Though like many early writers when he wrote about his climb he made allegorical comparisons between climbing the mountain and his own moral progress in life.

In the middle ages we had many Pilgrimage to Holy Places and books like Pilgrims Progress

Journals of 18^th Century Tourists

The Grand Tour

Journals, diaries and memoirs, came to the fore in the 18^th century when travel literature was commonly known as ‘a book of travels’. Some of these books detailed maritime adventures, for instance the diaries of Captain James Cook’s (1784) that were so popular they were the equivalent of today's best sellers.

But other 18^th and 19^th century journals were accounts of the Grand Tour, when aristocrats, clergy, and others with money and leisure time travelled Europe to learn about the art and architecture of its past. Then these nobles would return home to England and greatly enhance their palaces and manors with finds, and ideas they had appreciated overseas.

The New York Times recently described the Grand Tour in this way:

‘Three hundred years ago, wealthy young Englishmen began taking a post-Oxbridge trek through France and Italy in search of art, culture and the roots of Western civilization. With nearly unlimited funds, aristocratic connections and months (or years) to roam, they commissioned paintings, perfected their language skills and mingled with the upper crust of the Continent.’

—Gross, Matt., "Lessons From the Frugal Grand Tour." New York Times 5 September 2008.

Then there was  Thomas Cook and sons

Thomas Cook

Today you can organise a Thomas Cook trip to the island of Lemnos!

Sojourner’s Memoirs

In today’s global community it has become easier to travel, and often necessary to move for work and sometimes necessary to relocate for political reasons.

Nowadays there has arisen a style of travel writing that has become popular where the writer settles into a locality for an extended period, while endeavoring to still observe with a travel writer's sensibility. These ‘staying in one place’ travel books (or perhaps they could be called ‘living-the-good-life-in-Europe’ travel books) include those about artists working overseas, or family’s moving to renovating old homes in other countries. 

Examples of such writings include Lawrence Durrell’s Bitter Lemons and Peter Male’s best-selling A Year in Provence and its sequels.

And of course another and more modern way to write up your travel experiences is to blog. One of the readers of my blog sent me this link to her son’s blog. One of the best travel blogs I’ve seen, beautifully set up and easy to negotiate.

www.thebesttravelled.com