The Travels of Joannes Kool and His Travel Journal (1698-1699) to Italy
SCHOLARLY IDENTITY AND MEMORY ON A GRAND TOUR: THE TRAVELS OF JOANNES KOOL AND HIS TRAVEL JOURNAL (1698-1699) TO ITALY KOEN SCHOLTEN, AskER PELGROM Abstract This article presents the recently uncovered travelogue by Joannes Kool (1672- ca. 1708) describing his travels through the Low Countries, France, Germany, and especially Italy. The first part explains how Kool could gain access to libraries, local scholarly networks, and manuscripts by drawing on a distinct scholarly identity. The second part analyses the afterlife of Kool and his journal, showing how the memory of his journey shaped changing forms of scholarly memory in different contexts up to the twentieth century. At the end of the article, an appendix has been added consisting of a selection of tran- scriptions from the travelogue. Keywords: travel writing – grand tour – Republic of Letters – scholarly identity – scholarly memory Moet, spreekt hy, ik dan ook den vryen staat verlaaten, Waar in ik heb vernoegt zoo langen tyd geleeft? Zal dan al ’t heiligdom van Pallas my niet baaten, Waar naar ik moedig langs haar heirbaan heb gestreeft? Moet ik, die in Italje en Vrankryks schoone streeken, Zoo veele wysheit, zoo bekoorlyk voor het hart, Beschouwt heb, my nu van vrydom zien versteeken, Of quynen tot in ’t graf door eene onheelbre smart?1 1 Excerpt from Ter bruiloft van den heere Joan Kool, Raad en Schepen der Stadt Amersfoort, en juffrouw Elizabeth Looten [...], Amsterdam: François Halma, 1703, p. 7. Translation to English: ‘Do I, he says, also leave this free condition, // In which I have delightfully lived for such a long time? // Will the holy shrine of Pallas be of no avail to me, // To which I have bravely strived on her paved roads? // I have seen the beautiful regions of Italy and France, // With so much wisdom, so appealing to the heart, // Do I have to see that take my freedom away // Or do I need to languish until the grave with an incurable yearning?’ Lias 46/1 (2019) 93-136.
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