Volume III Part 9 (1/2)

James's Place. There were at least ten copies of the early Block Books; of which the _Ars Memorandi_ and the _Anti-Christ_ (with extracts inserted in the latter from the B.S.) appeared to be the more ancient and interesting.

But I must not forget to mention a very indifferent and imperfect copy of the _Latin Bible of Fust_, of 1462, UPON VELLUM. A few leaves in each volume are wanting. Here too I saw the _Pfarzival_ of 1477 (as at Strasbourg) printed in a metrical form.

As I got among the books of the _sixteenth_ century, I was much more gratified with the result of my researches. I will begin with a very choice article: which is nothing less than a copy of the _Complutensian Polyglott_, purchased by Eckius, in 1521, of the celebrated Demetrius Chalcondylas--as the following coeval ms. memorandum attests: ”Rome empta biblia ista P Eckium P xiiij ducatis largis a Demetrio Calcondyla anno 1521; mortuo iam Leone Papa in Decembri.” The death of Leo is here particularly mentioned, because, during his life, it is said that that Pontiff prohibited the sale of the work in question. The copy is fair and sound; but both this, and a duplicate copy, wants the sixth volume, being the Dictionary or Vocabulary. The mention of Eckius leads me to notice a little anecdote connected with him. He was, as you may have read, one of the most learned, most eloquent, and most successful of Luther's antagonists. He was also the princ.i.p.al theological Professor in the University of Ingoldstadt. They preserve at Landshut, brought from the former place, the chair and the doctor's cap of their famous Anti-Lutheran champion. You see both of these in one of the princ.i.p.al apartments of the Public Library. I was requested to sit in the chair of the renowned Eckius, and to put his doctorial bonnet upon my head. I did both:--but, if I had sat for a century to come, I should never have fancied myself Eckius ...

for more reasons than _one_.

The Sub Librarian, who is a Catholic, (Professor Siebenkees being a Protestant) has shewn great good sense in preserving all the tracts, which have fallen in his way, both _for_ and _against_ the Lutheran controversy.

You go between two small book-cases, or sets of shelves, and find _Luther_ in front, and _Eckius_ and his followers in the rear of you; or vice versa.

A considerable number of rare and curious little pieces of _Erasmus_ and _Melancthon_, are mixed in this collection, which is far from being small either in number or value. In this interesting collection, I saw a good copy of Ross's work against Luther, of the date of 1523, which appeared to me to be printed by Pynson.[82] It had the autograph of Sir Thomas More--(”_Thom^{9} mor^{9}”--_) who indeed is said to have been the author of the work. This very copy belonged to Eckius, and was given to him by the author, when Eckius came over to England in 1525: the fact being thus attested in the hand-writing of the latter: ”_Codex iste dono datus est mihi Johanni Eckio ab illius autore in Anglia, dum visendi cupidus in Insulam traiecissem, 1525, Augusto x_.” The worthy Professor next put into my hands what he considered to be an _absolutely unique_ copy of _Der Veis Ritter_, in 1514, folio: adding, that no other copy of the adventures of the _White Knight_, of the _same_ date, was known to bibliographers. I a.s.sented to the observation--equally from courtesy and sheer ignorance. But surely this is somewhat difficult to believe.

There was nothing further that demanded a distinct registry; and so, making my bow, and shaking hands with the worthy Librarian very heartily, I quitted this congenial spot;--not however before I had been introduced to a Professor of botany (whose name has now escaped me) who was busily engaged in making extracts in the reading room, with a short pipe by the side of him, and a small red ta.s.selled cap upon his head. He had an expressive countenance; understood our language so as to read Shakespeare with facility, and even with rapture: and to a question of mine, whether he was not much gratified with Schlegel's critical remarks upon that dramatist, he replied, that ”he did not admire them so much, as, from the Edinburgh Review, the English appeared to do.” To another question--”which of Shakspeare's plays pleased him most?” he replied, unhesitatingly, ”_Romeo and Juliet_.” I own, I should have thought that the mystical, or philosophy-loving, brain of a German would have preferred _Hamlet_.

On leaving the library, I surveyed the town with tolerably minute attention. After Munich, it appeared sufficiently small. Its population indeed scarcely exceeds 8000. The day turned out very beautiful, and my first and princ.i.p.al attention was directed to _St. Martin's Church_; of which the tower (as I think I before told you) is considered to be full 420 feet in height, and the loftiest in Bavaria. But its height is its princ.i.p.al boast. Both in detail, and as a whole, the architecture is miserably capricious and tasteless. It is built of red brick. Many of the monuments in the church-yard, but more particularly some mural ones, struck me as highly characteristic of the country. Among these rude specimens of sculpture, the representation of _Our Saviour's Agony in the Garden_--the favourite subject in Bavaria--was singularly curious to a fresh eye. It may be between two and three hundred years old; but has suffered no injury.

They have, in the princ.i.p.al street, covered walks, for foot-pa.s.sengers, in a piazza-fas.h.i.+on, a little resembling those at Chester: but neither so old nor so picturesque. The intermixture of rural objects, such as trees and gra.s.s plats--in the high street of Landshut--renders a stroll in the town exceedingly agreeable to the lover of picturesque scenery. The booths and stalls were all getting ready for the fair--which I learnt was to last nearly a fortnight: and which I was too thankful to have escaped.

We left Landshut on a fine sun-s.h.i.+ning afternoon, purposing to sleep at the second stage--_Neumarkt_--(Angl. ”Newmarket”) in the route to Salzburg.

_Neumarkt_ is little better than a small village, but we fared well in every respect at the princ.i.p.al, if not the only, inn in the place. Our beds were even luxurious. Neumarkt will be quickly forgotten: but the following stage--or _Altoting_--will not be so easily banished from our recollection.

We reached it to a late breakfast--after pa.s.sing through the most fertile and beautifully varied country which I had yet seen--and keeping almost constantly in view the magnificent chain of the Tyrolese mountains, into the very heart of which we seemed to be directing our course. ALToTING is situated upon an eminence. We drove into the Place, or Square, and alighted at what seemed to be a large and respectable inn. Two ladies and two gentlemen had just arrived before us, from Munich, by a different route: and while I was surveying them, almost mistaking them for English, and had just exchanged salutations, my valet came and whispered in my ear that ”these good folks were come on a pilgrimage to the shrine of the _Black Virgin_.” While I was wondering at this intelligence, the valet continued: ”you see that small church in the centre of the square--it is _there_ where the richest shrine in Bavaria is deposited; and to-day is a 'high day' with the devotees who come to wors.h.i.+p.” On receiving this information, we all three prepared to visit this mean-looking little church. I can hardly describe to you with sufficient accuracy, the very singular, and to me altogether new, scene which presented itself on reaching the church. There is a small covered way--in imitation of cloisters--which goes entirely round it. The whole of the interior of these cloisters is covered with little pictures, images, supposed relics--and, in short votive offerings of every description, to the Holy Virgin, to whom the church is dedicated. The wors.h.i.+ppers believe that the mother of Christ was an _African_ by birth, and therefore you see little black images of the virgin stuck up in every direction. At first, I mistook the whole for a parcel of p.a.w.nbrokers shops near each other: and eyed the several articles with a disposition, more or less, to become a purchaser of a few.

But the sound of the chant, and the smell of the frankincense, broke in upon my speculations, and called my attention to the interior. I entered with a sort of rush of the congregation. This interior struck me as being scarcely thirty feet by twenty; but the eye is a deceitful rule in these cases. However, I continued to advance towards the altar; the heat, at the same time, being almost suffocating. An iron grating separated the little chapel and shrine of our _Black Lady_ from the other portion of the building; and so numerous, so constant, and apparently so close, had been the pressure and friction of each succeeding congregation, for probably more than two centuries, that some of these rails, or bars, originally at least one inch square, had been worn to _half_ the size of their pristine dimensions. It was with difficulty, on pa.s.sing them, that I could obtain a peep at the altar; which, however, I saw sufficiently distinctly to perceive that it was entirely covered with silver vases, cups, dishes, and other _solid_ proofs of devotional ardour--which in short seemed to reach to the very roof. Having thus far gratified my curiosity, I retreated as quickly as possible; for not a window was open, and the little light which these windows emitted, together with the heat of the place, produced so disagreeable an effect as to make me apprehensive of sudden illness. On reaching the outward door, and enjoying the freedom of respiration, I made a sort of secret, but natural vow, that I would never again visit the shrine of _Our Black Lady_ on a festival day.

An excellent breakfast--together with the neatness and civility of the female attendants--soon counter-acted the bad effects of the hydrogen contained within the walls of the place of wors.h.i.+p we had just quitted.

Every thing around us wore a cheerful and pleasing aspect; inasmuch as every thing reminded us of our own country. The servants were numerous, and all females; with their hair braided in a style of elegance which would not have disgraced the first drawing-room in London. We quaffed coffee out of cups which were perfectly of the Brobdignagian calibre; and the bread had the lightness and sweetness of cake. Between eleven and twelve, Charles Rohfritsch (alias our valet) announced that the carriage and horses were at the door; and on springing into it, we bade adieu to the worthy landlady and her surrounding attendants, in a manner quite natural to travellers who have seen something very unusual and interesting, and who have in other respects been well satisfied with good fare, and civil treatment. Not one of the circle could speak a word of French; so I told Charles to announce to them that we would not fail to spread the fame of their coffee, eggs, and bread, all over England! They laughed heartily--and then gave us a farewell salutation ... by dropping very-formal curtesies--their countenances instantly relapsing into a corresponding gravity of expression.

In three minutes the inn, the square, and the church of the _Black Virgin_, were out of sight. The postilion put his bugle to his mouth, and played a lively air--in which the valet immediately joined. The musical infatuation, for an instant, extended to ourselves; for it was a tune which we had often heard in England, and which reminded me, in particular, of days of past happiness--never to return! But the sky was bright, the breeze soft, the road excellent, and the view perfectly magnificent. It was evident that we were now nearing the Tyrolese mountains. ”At the foot of yonder second, sharp-pointed hill, lies SALZBURG”--said the valet: on receiving his intelligence from the post-boy. We seemed to be yet some twenty miles distant. To the right of the hill pointed out, the mountains rose with a loftier swell, and, covered by snow, the edges or terminations of their summits seemed to melt into the sky.

Our road now became more hilly, and the time flew away quickly, without our making an apparently proportionate progress towards Salzburg. At length we reached _Burckhausen_; which is flanked by the river _Salz_ on one side, and defended by a lofty citadel on the other. It struck us, upon the whole, as rather a romantic spot: but the road, on entering the town, is in some places fearfully precipitous. The stratum was little better than rock. We were not long in changing horses, and made off instantly for _t.i.ttmaning_; the last stage but one on that side of Salzburg. The country wore a more pleasing aspect. Stately trees spread their dark foliage on each side of the road; between the stems, and through the branches of which, we caught many a ”spirit-stirring” view of the mountains in the neighbourhood of Salzburg--which, on our nearer approach, seemed to have attained double their first grandeur. After having changed horses at _t.i.ttmaning_, and enjoyed a delightfully picturesque ride from Burckhausen thither, we dined at the following stage, _Lauffen_; a poor, yet picturesque and wildly-situated, large village. While the dinner was preparing, I walked to the extremity of the street where the inn is situated, and examined a small church, built there upon high ground. The cloisters were very striking; narrow and low, but filled with mural monuments, of a singular variety of character. It was quite evident, from numberless exhibitions of art--connected with religious wors.h.i.+p--along the road-side, or attached to churches--that we had now entered a territory quite different from that of Baden, Wirtemberg, and even the northern part of Bavaria. Small crucifixes, and a representation of the _Agony in the Garden_, &c, presented themselves frequently to our view; and it seemed as if Austria were a land of even greater superst.i.tion than Bavaria.

On concluding our dinner, and quitting Lauffen, it grew dusk, and the rain began to fall in a continued drizzling shower. ”It always rains at Salzburg, sir,” said the valet--repeating the information of the post boy.

This news made us less cheerful on leaving Lauffen than we were on quitting _Altoting_: but ”hope travelled through”--even till we reached the banks of the river Salz, within a mile or two of Salzburg--where the Austrian dominions begin, and those of Bavaria terminate. Our carriage was here stopped, and the trunks were examined, very slightly, on each side of the river. The long, wooden, black and yellow-striped bar of Austria--reaching quite across the road--forbade further progress, till such examination, and a payment of four or five florins, as the barrier-tax,--had been complied with. I had imagined that, if our trunks had been examined on _one_ side of the water, there needed no examination of them on the _other_; unless we had had intercourse with some water fiend in the interval. It seemed, however, that I reasoned illogically. We were detained full twenty minutes, by a great deal of pompous palaver--signifying nothing--on the part of the Austrian commissioner; so that it was quite dark when we entered the barriers of the town of Salzburg:--mountains, trees, meadows, and rivulets having been long previously obliterated from our view.

The abrupt ascents and descents of the streets--and the quivering reflection of the lights from the houses, upon the surface of the river _Salz_--soon convinced us that we were entering a very extraordinary town.

But all was silent: neither the rattling of carriages, nor the tread of foot-pa.s.sengers, nor the voice of the labourer, saluted our ear on entering Salzburg--when we drove briskly to the _Golden-Schiff_, in the _Place de la Cathedrale_, whence I am now addressing you. This inn is justly considered to be the best in the town; but what a melancholy reception--on our arrival! No rush of feet, no display of candles, nor elevation of voices, nor ringing of the bell--- as at the inns on our great roads in England--but ... every body and every, thing was invisible. Darkness and dulness seemed equally to prevail. One feeble candle at length glimmered at the extremity of a long covered arch-way, while afterwards, to the right, came forward two men--with what seemed to be a farthing candle between them, and desired to know the object of our halting? ”Beds, and a two-day's residence in your best suite of apartments,” replied I quickly--for they both spoke the French language. We were made welcome by one of them, who proved to be the master, and who helped us to alight. A long, and latterly a wet journey, had completely fatigued us--and after mounting up one high stair-case, and rambling along several loosely-floored corridors--we reached our apartments, which contained each a very excellent bed. Wax candles were placed upon the tables: a fire was lighted: coffee brought up; and a talkative, and civil landlord soon convinced us that we had no reason to grumble at our quarters.[83]

On rising the next morning, we gazed upon almost every building with surprise and delight; and on catching a view of the CITADEL--in the back ground, above the Place de la Cathedrale--it seemed as if it were situated upon an eminence as lofty as Quito. I quickly sought the _Monastery of St.

Peter_;--the oldest in the Austrian dominions. I had heard, and even read about its library; and imagined that I was about to view books, of which no bibliographer had ever yet--even in a vision--received intelligence. But you must wait a little ere I take you with me to that monastic library.

There is a pleasing chime of bells, which are placed outside of a small cupola in the _Place_, in which stands the cathedral. I had heard this chime during the night--when I would rather have heard ... any thing else.

What struck me the first thing, on looking out of window, was, the quant.i.ty of gra.s.s--such as Ossian describes within the walls of _Belcluthah_--growing between the pavement in the square. ”Wherefore was this?” ”Sir, (replied the master of the Golden Schiff) this town is undergoing a gradual and melancholy depopulation. Before the late war, there were 27,000 inhabitants in Salzburg: at present, there are scarcely 15,000. This _Place_ was the constant resort of foreigners as well as townsmen. They filled every portion of it. Now, you observe there is only a narrow, worn walk, which gives indication of the route of a few straggling pedestrians. Even the very chimes of yonder bells (which must have _delighted_ you so much at every third hour of the night!) have lost their pleasing tone;--and sound as if they foreboded still further desolation to Salzburg.” The man seemed to feel as he spoke; and I own that I was touched by so animated and unexpected a reply.

I examined two or three old churches, of the Gothic order, of which I have already forgotten the names--unless they be those of _Ste. Trinite_ and _St. Sebastien_. In one of them--it being a festival--there was a very crowded congregation; while the priest was addressing his flock from the steps of the altar, in a strain of easy and impa.s.sioned eloquence. Wherever I went--and upon almost whatever object I gazed--there appeared to be traces of curious, if not of remote, antiquity. Indeed the whole town abounds with such--among which are some Roman relics, which have been recently (1816) described by Goldenstein, in a quarto volume published here, and written in the German language.[84]

But you are impatient for the MONASTERY OF ST. PETER.[85] Your curiosity shall be no longer thwarted; and herewith I proceed to give you an account of my visit to that venerable and secluded spot--the abode of silence and of sanct.i.ty. It was my first appearance in a fraternity of MONKS; and those of the order of ST. BENEDICT. I had no letter of recommendation; but, taking my valet with me, I knocked at the outer gate--and received immediate admission within some ancient and low cloisters: of which the pavement consisted entirely of monumental slabs. The valet sought the librarian, to make known my wishes of examining the library; and I was left alone to contemplate the novel and strange scene which presented itself on all sides. There were two quadrangles, each of sufficiently limited dimensions. In the first, there were several young Monks playing at skittles in the centre of the lawn. Both the bowl and pins were of unusually large dimensions, and the direction of the former was confined within boards, fixed in the earth. These athletic young Benedictins (they might be between twenty and thirty years of age) took little or no notice of me; and while my eye was caught by a monumental tablet, which presented precisely the same coat-armour as the device used by Fust and Schoeffher,--and which belonged to a family that had been buried about two hundred and fifty years--the valet returned, and announced that the Princ.i.p.al of the College desired to see me immediately.

I obeyed the summons in an instant, and followed Rohfritsch up stairs.

There, on the first floor, a middle-aged monk received me, and accompanied me to the chamber of the President. On rapping at the door with his knuckles, a hollow but deep-toned voice commanded the visitor to enter. I was introduced with some little ceremony, but was compelled, most reluctantly, to have recourse to Latin, in conversing with the Princ.i.p.al.

He rose to receive me very graciously; and I think I never before witnessed a countenance which seemed to _tell_ of so much hard f.a.gging and meditation. He must have read every _Father_, in the _editio princeps_ of his works. His figure and physiognomical expression bespoke a rapid approach to the grand climacteric of human life. The deeply-sunk, but large and black, beaming eye--the wan and shrivelled cheek--the nose, somewhat aquiline, with nostrils having all the severity of sculpture--sharp, thin lips--an indented chin--and a highly raised forehead, surmounted by a little black silk cap--(which was taken off on the first salutation) all, added to the gloom of the place, and the novelty of the costume, impressed me in a manner not easily to be forgotten. My visit was very short, as I wished it to be; and it was concluded with an a.s.surance, on the part of the Princ.i.p.al, that the librarian would be at home on the following day, and ready to attend me to the library:--but, added the Princ.i.p.al, on parting, ”we have nothing worthy of the inspection of a traveller who has visited the libraries of Paris and Munich. At Molk, you will see fine books, and a fine apartment for their reception.”