Hieronymus Turlerus claims that his De Peregrinatione (Argentorati, 1574) is the first book to be devoted to precepts of travel.  It was translated into English and published in London in 1575, under the title of The Traveiler of Jerome Turler, and is, as far as I know, the first book of the sort in England.  Not much is known of Turler, save that he was born at Leissnig, in Saxony, in 1550, studied at Padua, became a Doctor of Law, made such extensive travels that he included even England—­a rare thing in those days—­and after serving as Burgomaster in his native place, died in 1602.  His writings, other than De Peregrinatione, are three translations from Machiavelli.[40]

Turler addresses to two young German noblemen his book “written on behalf of such as are desirous to travell, and to see foreine cuntries, and specially of students....  Mee thinkes they do a good deede, and well deserve of al men, that give precepts for traveyl.  Which thing, althoughe I perceive that some have done, yet have they done it here and there in sundrie Bookes and not in any one certeine place.”  A discussion of the advantages of travel had appeared in Thomas Wilson’s Arte of Rhetorique (1553),[41] and certain practical directions for avoiding ailments to which travellers were susceptible had been printed in Basel in 1561,[42] but Turler’s would seem to be the first book devoted to the praise of peregrination.  Not only does Turler say so himself, but Theodor Zwinger, who three years later wrote Methodus Apodemica, declares that Turler and Pyrckmair were his only predecessors in this sort of composition.[43]

Pyrckmair was apparently one of those governors, or Hofmeister,[44] who accompanied young German noblemen on their tours through Europe.  He drew up a few directions, he declares, as guidance for himself and the Count von Sultz, whom he expected shortly to guide into Italy.  He had made a previous journey to Rome, which he enjoyed with the twofold enthusiasm of the humanist and the Roman Catholic, beholding “in a stupor of admiration” the magnificent remnants of classic civilization and the institutions of a benevolent Pope.[45]

From Plantin’s shop in Antwerp came in 1587 a narrative by another Hofmeister—­Stephen Vinandus Pighius—­concerning the life and travels of his princely charge, Charles Frederick, Duke of Cleves, who on his grand tour died in Rome.  Pighius discusses at considerable length,[46] in describing the hesitancy of the Duke’s guardians about sending him on a tour, the advantages and disadvantages of travel.  The expense of it and the diseases you catch, were great deterrents; yet the widening of the mind which judicious travelling insures, so greatly outweighed these and other disadvantages, that it was arranged after much discussion, “not only in the Council but also in the market-place and at the dinner-table,” to send young Charles for two years to Austria to the court of his uncle the Emperor Maximilian, and then to Italy, France, and Lower Germany to visit the princess, his relations, and friends, and to see life.