There is an inexplicable pleasure to be gained from delving into the past through the written words and hand-drawn images of a personal travel journal. Inspired by the human instinct to keep a record of one’s life, they provide intimate insight into private thoughts, helping us to understand the passions and prejudices of historic individuals. Much like a time machine, they can transport us into alternate realities, providing a rare glimpse into the world as it was experienced by the writer.
Description of Greece – Pausanias
In the 2nd century AD, a Greek traveler and geographer named Pausanias created a work which has provided modern archaeologists with a great source of information. His Description of Greece is a lengthy work that gives firsthand accounts and observations of ancient Greece and has helped archaeologists to make links between classical literature and their modern archaeological discoveries.
Page from a 1485 manuscript of Pausanias' ‘Description of Greece’ at the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana. (Public Domain)
The First Voyage Around the World – Antonio Pigafetta
In what later became known as the first circumnavigation around the world, the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan led five ships out of Seville down the Guadalquivir in search of a westerly route to the Indian Spice Islands. In an accidental twist of fate, they ended up continuing west and managing to sail back to Spain. Only one ship made it back, and there were only 18 survivors. Among them was the Venetian Antonio Pigafetta, who had kept a journal recording scientific observations and personal anecdotes during the famed voyage.
While the original journal has been lost, he wrote a report entitled The First Voyage Around the World based on his experiences. Written by hand in Italian, and illustrated with 23 stunning watercolor maps, Pigafetta presented copies to several monarchs, including the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.
Rose’s Private Journal for Caroline - Rose de Saulces de Freycinet
The journal of Rose de Saulces de Freycinet is one of the few travel journals written by a woman to have been rescued from the archives. The wife of an aristocratic French commander, Captain Louis de Freycinet, she couldn’t bear to part with her love when he was called up to command a scientific expedition around the world. Probably one of the most amazing women you’ve never heard of, Freycinet decided to break naval rules, which prohibited women on board, and dressed as a man to sneak on board as a stowaway.
After they had sailed from the last European port, she left her cabin and spent the next three years on the Uranie as it sailed around the world. The French press was outraged. The voyage had stops planned in far-flung locations, including Gibraltar, Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town, Sydney, the Hawaiian Islands, and la Reunión, until it was shipwrecked in the Falkland Islands. Captain Freycinet even named a small island after his beloved, the Rose Atoll in modern-day American Samoa.
Rose de Freycinet coming to shore at Timor in 1819. (Public Domain)
Read more excerpts from fascinating travel journals in the article ‘Delve into History with 5 Iconic Travel Journals’ available in the May - June 2023 issue of Ancient Origins Magazine. Get it here!
Featured Image: Representation of a travel journal waiting to be filled with memorable events. Source: Brebca / Adobe Stock
By Cecilia Bogaard