Travel - Travel as Pilgrimage Montaigne · Rome was regenerating in the 16th century - the Pope had returned in the 1400s after the schism and the restoration of Christianity was symbolised by growing the population and updating Rome in the renaissance style · His writing was met with positivity in France and travel was a way to get into a career in politics and ambassadorial positions - he had kidney stones and felt that spas were a better cure · His secretary wrote his work and noted his travels and this was less focussed on normal topics like Renaissance art - his was quite dry so got a mixed reception . His writing is far more personal and went more off path with things he saw - went to what he saw as interesting, not what was expected · Journal of his trip to Italy was written in Italian and French · Pilgrims should gain the protection of guides, never talk to locals for fear of being named a spy and should stick with other pilgrims . He had a level of concern that he would die and not return - kidney stones were serious back then and people often got ill on pilgrimage and never returned (pilgrims were seen as suspended between life and death) Burton · Orientalism and Irwin's critique of it - "overvalued the importance of high literature in intellectual history" - Dante represented Islam in the wrong way and looked for things that weren't there · Orientalism was built on inaccuracies and sometimes this was recognised - the West "othered" the east and if Islam was talked about, it was in the Church in the form of heresy - Islamic and Arabian people weren't always presented as alien or exotic though · Orientalism has aspects of a novel - criticises Said's text · Burton was in the army and worked for the East India Company but went on sick leave for conjunctivitis and syphilis which is when he proposed to remove the white blot on the map of the Arabian desert and fill it in · Proposal was against another explorer who was more expensive - Burton was a talented linguist and orientalist and, due his looks, he could more easily appear as a native · Travelled to Mecca in 1853 and became more interested in Zanzibar which the RGS disapproved of - Burton did not match up his letters and his writing and this was as he was in it for the fame (slow in delivering his letters to the RGS) - Godsall's argument · Burton had a two week holiday in the middle of his expedition - he was bored of writing at one point and said that must mean people were bored of reading it · There is a stereotypical image of him as the Victorian traveller who was imperialistic but his romantic individualism juxtaposes this · Despite often appearing individualistic, rather than imperialistic, he remarked to his wife that "no man