People traveled overland for many purposes, including commerce, diplomacy, pilgrimages, postal services, education, spa treatment, and warfare (see Chapter 7, Warfare). Merchandise was moved by a variety of means, including carts, pack animals, and large wagons. Merchants often transported goods in caravans of several pack animals or wheeled conveyances. Caravans of several travelers provided some security against bandits, and extra pack animals could carry provisions for the merchants and their animals. Just as today’s automobiles require fuel, animals transporting people and commodities had to be fed. The roadside inns charged exorbitant prices, knowing that they had a captive market. Moreover, eating and sleeping in an inn were not pleasant experiences, because three or more strangers had to share each bed, which often was infested with fleas. Inns also attracted unsavory characters, notably mercenary soldiers looking for a victim, and prostitutes.
The vast majority of travelers by land journeyed on foot, especially those on religious pilgrimages. As these travelers passed local shrines, they could acquire souvenirs such as metallic pilgrim badges that were fastened to hats and clothing. Rome, Jerusalem, Santiago da Compostela, and Canterbury were the preferred destinations, where merchants hawked pilgrim badges as well as statuettes, candles, and other devotional objects. By the 16th century printed views of the cathedrals and schematic maps of the pilgrimage routes were available. Pilgrimages were ambitious undertakings, often requiring several weeks of travel. Walking purposefully from
Exploration and Travel
Mainz to Venice, for example, required 15 to 20 days, a distance of 370 miles. Traveling by both land and sea, a pilgrim could leisurely make the journey from Germany to Jerusalem in three months.
Walking was usually as fast as traveling by coach or wagon because the roadways outside cities and towns were in terrible condition, not much better than they were during the Middle Ages. Wheels became stuck in ruts or mired in mud, with the draft horses or mules struggling along in adverse conditions. In dry seasons, passengers in wagons were subjected to clouds of dust churned up by the horses. Mounted on the axles of wooden wheels, even private coaches with padded seats were quite uncomfortable, bouncing and shifting with every rut and curve in the road. More comfortable were the newer coaches suspended from thick leather straps or litters (sedan chairs) suspended on wooden poles with one horse in front and another behind. Horseback riding was the fastest mode of travel. In some regions travelers could rent horses at stations along the roadway, changing horses as pony express riders did in the Old West. Couriers on horseback were the speediest travelers in Renaissance Europe. Changing to a fresh horse every 12 miles or so, an experienced courier could cover as many as 50 miles per day. By the latter 15th century, both France and Spain had postal service using couriers. During the 16th century the postal systems of the Holy See and of the Habsburg empire were models of efficient courier service.
TRAVEL LITERATURE
Renaissance pilgrims were guided by informational publications that described and depicted not only the main roads, but also scenic or inspirational side trips. These books and pamphlets were quite popular. In France, for example, approximately 8 percent of all books printed in the 16th century were guidebooks for pilgrims. One of the earliest books printed in English was Informacion for Pylgrymes unto the Holy Londe (1498), because Jerusalem was an important destination. Letters sent from foreign missionaries provided descriptive accounts of distant locales that could be savored by those unable or unwilling to travel, just as the itineraries marketed to students attending foreign universities could also be enjoyed by their family and friends at home. Several practical road guides were published during the 16th century, a few claiming to describe all the roads of the world. Travel as a metaphor for one’s life became quite popular during the Renaissance, probably as a result of the heightened interest in actual travel, in Europe as well as abroad.
World History
