Agria 37. (Az Egri Múzeum Évkönyve - Annales Musei Agriensis, 2001)

Bitskey István: Utazások szervezése a barokk kori Magyarországon

István Bitskey The Organisation of Travel in Baroque Hungary The basic premises of travel literature in the baroque period were expessed by the Dutch humanist Justus Lipsius, when he said that when organising a journey it was best to have a clear idea of what you wanted to achieve, bearing in mind its usefulness to oneself and the journey's capacity to delight (Epistola de peregrinatione italica, 1578). This basic premise was also adopted by Lipius's Hungarian correspondent Mihály Forgách, and in a lecture he gave in praise of travelling (Oratio de peregrinatione et eius laudibus, 1587) to the young Hungarians at the University of Wittenberg. During his lecture Forgách referred to the world-wandering Odysseus as being a model traveller. Several of the genres making up travel literature in Hungary were widespread during the baroque period. Letters home (missiles), diaries, mémoires all refer to travel experiences, indeed the friendships made on such journeys were recorded in a genre of its own, the album amicorum. The reasons for such journeys were mainly made for ecclesiastical (peregrinatio sanctd) or academic purposes (peregrinatio academicd). The most detailed travelling manuals in Hungary written during the 17

th century were those by the teacher Dávid Frölich from Késmárk (Medulla geographicae practicae, 1639, Bibliotheca seu cynosura peregrinantium, 1643). These contain detailed information about how to travel, where to stay, what to eat, the travelling companions you should choose, and how travellers should behave. The books also suggest what one should look at in one or two foreign towns. It was clear that the travelling instructions found in such books were read by those Protestant students who studied at German and Dutch universities during the baroque period, and who, by the time they had returned home, had visited a number of European cities. One such person, Márton Szepsi Csombor, took the longest route, and his diary of the journey is of literary importance (Europica varietas, 1620). The study tours which young aristocrats were expected to undertake were organised with an unusual eye to detail. One fine example is the Italian journey taken in 1636 by the 16-year-old Miklós Zrínyi, as well as Zsigmond Széchenyi's journeys in 1699. On such journeys those accompanying were given strict instructions from the patron concerning the route to be taken and what should be visited. Travel expenses also had to be counted down to the last penny. The so-called Kavalierstour amounted to a very special type of tour on which young aristocrats were advised to go in search of various European courts in order to become acquainted with their customs. A number of sources survive describing the journeys Hungarian primates took to Rome. Usually they went to Italy via Vienna, the journey taking a month depending on the state of the horses and the postcoaches. Nearly all travellers called in on Venice, where those Hungarians wishing to travel by sea frequently boarded a ship. This was something which the Franciscan István Kiss did, when we went to the Holy Land, a journey described in his colourful account (Jeruzsálemi utazás, 1793-96). Those, like the Hungarian nobility, who had the means to do it, travelled in coaches drawn by two or four horses, the planning and organisation of which is recorded in great detail by Péter Apor in his Metamorphoses Transylvaniae (1736). To conclude, one can say that travel literature was indeed popular in the Hungary of the baroque period,and that the desire to travel existed at all levels of society. It was usual 219