Between observation and tradition: Philippe de Hurges and the Roman antiquities (1615)

In 1615, Philippe de Hurges (1585-1643), a bourgeois from Tournai, made a journey from his city to Aachen. Throughout his itinerary, which crossed the southern Netherlands and the prince-bishopric of Liège, de Hurges recorded his observations in a manuscript now kept at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BNF, Manuscrits, Français, n° 9025). This source constitutes a unique testimony on the perception of ancient monuments, medieval and especially ancient, in the early modern period. Very curious, Philippe de Hurges endeavored to describe, sometimes meticulously, the Roman vestiges (real or supposed) which remained at his time. He often tried to explain their origin and function, both by personal observation (like early modern antiquarians) and by resorting to local traditions and questioning the inhabitants of the region. In addition, the traveler made several drawings of the remains that were considered particularly important. This paper aims to present the interest of this little-exploited source, both from the point of view of the reception of Antiquity (especially the relationship between personal observation and local tradition) and from that of a study of the visibility of ancient remains and the place they occupied in the landscape at the beginning of the 17th century