The Journal of Montaigne's Travels in Italy by Way of Switzerland and Germany in 1580 and 1581, Volume 2 (of 3)

Here is the father of the essay, away from his library, wandering 16th-century Europe with his eyes wide open. Montaigne traveled through Italy, Switzerland, and Germany in 1580 and 1581, and this journal captures what he saw when he looked at the world: a Roman amphitheater half-swallowed by weeds, a crowd at Mass in Verona, the particular quality of a German inn, the way strangers eat. He records everything with the same attentive curiosity, whether it's a dish of fish or the architecture of a cathedral or a conversation with a local official. What emerges is not just a picture of Renaissance Europe, but the mind itself at work, testing its impressions against reality. This is Montaigne unfettered, the man who would later revolutionize how we think about thinking, still in motion, still wondering what it means to be human in a strange place among strangers.