“(…) I will now returne unto that part of the Grisons country where-hence I digressed, even to Tossana, where I entred a fourth valley which is called by the same name as the other immediately behind it, namely the valley of Rhene, because that river runneth through this also where it inlargeth it selfe in a farre greater bredth then in the other valley. Also some doe call it the valley of Curia from the citie of Curia the metropolitane of the country, standing in the principall and most fertil place thereof.
I departed from Tossana about seven of the clocke in the morning, the three and twentieth of August beeing Tuesday, and came to Curia tenne miles beyond it, which is the head citie of the country (as I have before said) about one of the clocke in the afternoone.
I observed many wooden bridges in this valley, made of whole pine trees (as those of Savoy) which are rudely clapped together. One of those bridges is of a great length, about one hundred and twenty paces long, and sixe broad, and roofed over with timber. Also it hath foure very huge wooden pillars in the water. This bridge is made over the river Rhene, about five miles on this side the citie of Curia, over the which every stranger that passeth payeth money.
I observed this country to bee colder by halfe then Italie, the ayre beeing heere as temperate as with us in England.
The abundance of peares and apples in many places of Rhetia, especially about the citie of Curia, is such that I wondred at it: for I never saw so much store together in my life, neither doe I thinke that Calabria which is so much stored with peares, can yeeld more plenty for the quantitie or space of ground, then this part of Rhetia doth. Their trees being so exceedingly laden, that the boughes were even ready to breake through the weight of the fruite. (…)”

(aus: Coryat`s Crudities, hastily gobled up in five moneths travells in France, Savoy, Italy, Rhetia commonly called the Grisons country, Helvetia alias Switzerland, some parts of high Germany and the Netherlands; newly digested in the hungry aire of Odcombe in the county of Somerset, and now dispersed to the nourishment of the travelling members of this kingdome)

Vergeblich suchten wir in den Crudities nach einer Beschreibung der Via Mala, die Coryat – so ziemlich zu ihren wildesten Zeiten – auf seiner Alpenrheinreise passiert haben müßte. Der Marktflecken Tossana (Thusis) bleibt ebenso nahezu unbeschrieben wie die übrigen Dörfer des Hinterrheins, erst Chur erfährt ausführlichere Notizen (die wir evtl noch hier vorstellen). Von Chur geht Coryats Reise den Rhein abwärts bis Sargans, von wo er über Walastat (Walenstadt) nach Zürich abbiegt, um erst wieder bei Basel auf den Strom zu treffen. Seine Ausführungen zu diesem Alpenrheinabschnitt bleiben dürftig, viel mehr als Schätzungen der Wiesenflächen stehen nicht zu Buche, doch vermerkt Coryat, daß er ab Sargans bis tief in die Niederlande fortan lückenlos jeden Reisetag mindestens einen Rheinwein kredenzt bekam.

Coryats Stelle mit den Hüpffröschen ist gefunden („I never saw the hundreth part of them in so short a space in all my life: most of their meadowes being so full of them, that I could not step five or sixe steps but I should finde a little frogge“). Er sah diese Froschwiesen im Veltlin, also nicht ganz in Deutschland – es sei denn, es tauchen noch mehr solcher Stellen auf. Coryat sah allerdings nicht nur Unmengen Frösche in Rhätien, sondern auch Unmengen Schafe („I saw great abundance of sheepe here, which I met driven in the way in many great flocks, all the sheepe being according to my estimation at the least foure thousand“), und Freiluft-Kinderarbeit („I observed that the poore Alpine people dwelling in the mountaynous places of the Grison territory, doe send their children abroad into the high wayes with certaine hoddes tyed about their necks, to gather up all the horse-dung that they can finde, which (as I take it) serveth onely for the dunging of their gardens“). Bei Splügen erreicht er den Rhein: „From this place Splugen forward all the Grisons speake Dutch. Here at Splugen I entered into a third valley of the Grisons country, namely the valley of the Rhene, which is so called because a little arme of the noble river Rhene runneth through it. In this valley of Rhene I travelled tenne miles. The Rhene which runneth through this valley, flowes with such an extreme swiftnesse, that the water thereof in certaine places where it falleth downe from steepe cataractes, raiseth a certaine reaking mist to a great heigth, which proceedeth from the greate violence of the torrent. (…)“ Hinter Splügen erfährt Coryat, daß die Bündner Entfernungen nicht in Meilen, sondern in Stunden angeben, was ihn erstaunt, da doch jeder mit unterschiedlichem Tempo sich bewege und nirgends sonst unter christlichem Himmel solche Sitte vorzufinden sei. Das Bünderfleisch bezeichnet Coryat mit einem merkwürdigen Begriff: „Amongst many dishes that come to their table Martelmasse beefe is very frequent.“ Der neuzeitlichen Zumutung, er sei „der erste Tourist“ gewesen, widerspricht Coryat in seiner Rhätien-Passage übrigens höchstpersönlich, indem er vorherige und nachfolgende Reisende bittet, eine eingestreute Textpassage, eine Coryatsche Übersetzung einer lateinisch verfaßten Rede von Hermannus Kirchnerus, ein einziges Lobpreisen des Reisens in Deutschland, freundlich aufzunehmen.

Thomas Coryat, Verfasser von Coryat`s Crudities, einem extensiven Bericht über seine europäische Reise zu Beginn des 17. Jahrhunderts, gilt manchen Quellen als „der erste Tourist“. Das halten wir für unwahrscheinlich, großsprecherisch und witzlos. Dennoch haben wir Coryats Beschreibung einer glimpflich verlaufenen Begegnung mit Pfälzer Weinbauern vor rund 400 Jahren hier gerne präsentiert und sind auf der Suche nach weiteren seiner rheinischen Reiseerlebnisse. Sekundarquellen sprechen von Coryats Vorliebe für Hüpffroschmetafern und Hüpffroschvorkommensabgleiche, insbesondere Deutschland muß zu Coryats Besuchszeiten übervoll mit Hüpffröschen gewesen sein. Coryat soll als erster Bischof Hattos Geschichte nach England gebracht haben, wo sie dann auf Jahrzehnte, wenn nicht Jahrhunderte als willkommene horror story zur Kindererziehung gedient haben soll. Von der astronomischen Münsteruhr zu Straßburg soll Coryat so überwältigt gewesen sein, daß er in einem Überwindungsakt äußerster britishness den Einbau eines ähnlichen Fabrikats in die St. Paul`s Cathedral empfahl. In Hillman`s Hyperlinked and Searchable Chamber`s Book of Days steht wie „der exzentrische Coryat“ auf das Heidelberger Faß klettert, um es, Perkeo gleich, mit einem Glas Wein in der Hand als ein den sieben Weltwundern der Antike ebenbürtiges Menschenwerk zu beschreiben: „„When tie cellarer,“ says Coryat, „draweth wine out of the vessel, he ascendeth two several degrees of wooden stairs made in the form of a ladder, and so goeth up to the top; about the middle whereof there is a hung-hole or venting orifice, into the which he conveyeth a pretty instrument of some foot and a half long, made in the form of a spout, wherewith he draweth up the wine and so potmeth it after a pretty manner into a glass.““ Von diesen Gläsern soll Coryat einige genossen haben. Das Heidelberger Faß taucht unterdessen ab und erst wieder bei Jules Verne in der Literatur auf. Wir suchen unterdessen in Coryats umfangreichen, nicht immer flüssig zu lesenden Berichten nach den Stellen mit den Hüpffröschen – und falls wir solche oder andere bezeichnende rheinische crudities finden sollten, stellen wir sie später hier ein.

THere hapned unto me a certaine disaster about the middest of my journey betwixt Franckendall and Wormes, the like whereof I did not sustaine in my whole journey out of England. Which was this. I stept aside into a vineyard in the open field that was but a litle distant from the high waie, to the end to taste of their grapes wherewith I might something asswage my thirst: hoping that I might as freely have done it there, as I did often times before in many places of Lombardie without any controulement. There I pulled two little clusters of them, and so returned into my way againe travelling securely and jovially towards Wormes, whose lofty Towers I saw neere at hand. But there came a German Boore upon me with a halbert in his hand, & in a great fury pulled off very violently my hat from my head (as I have expressed in the frontispice of my booke) looked very fiercely upon me with eyes sparkling fire in a manner, and with his Almanne wordes which I understood not, swaggered most insolently with me, holding up his halbert in that threatning manner at me, that I continually expected a blow, and was in deadly feare lest he would have made me a prey for the wormes before I should ever put my foote in the gallant City of Wormes. For it was in vaine for me to make any violent resistance, because I had no more weapon then a weake staffe, that I brought with me out of Italy. Although I understood not his speeches, yet I gathered by his angry gestures that the onely cause of his quarrel was for that he saw me come forth of a vineyard (which belike was his maisters) with a bunch of grapes in my hand. All this while that he threatned me with these menacing termes I stood before him almost as mute as a Seriphian frogge, or an Acanthian grashopper, scarce opening my mouth once unto him, because I thought that as I did not understand him, so likewise on the other side he did not understand me. At length with my tongue I began to reencounter him, tooke heart a grace, and so discharged a whole volley of Greeke and Latin shot upon him, supposing that it would bee an occasion to pacifie him somewhat if he did but onely thereby conceive that I had a little learning. But the implacable Clowne was so farre from being mitigated with my strange Rhetoricke, that he was rather much the more exasperated against me. In the end after many bickerings had passed Friends in betwixt US, three or foure good fellowes that came from Wormes, glaunced by, and inquired of me what the quarrell was. I being not able to speake Dutch asked them whether any of the company could speake Latin. Then immediately one replyed unto me that he could. Whereupon I discovered unto him the whole circumstance of the matter, and desired him to appease the rage of that inexorable and unpleasant peasant, that he might restore my hat againe to me. Then he like a very sociable companion interposed himselfe betwixt us as a mediator. But first he told me that I had committed a penal trespasse in presuming to gather grapes in a vineyard without leave, affirming that the Germanes are so exceeding sparing of their grapes, that they are wont to fine any of their owne countreymen that they catch in their vineyards without leave, either with purse or body; much more a stranger. Notwithstanding he promised to do his endevour to get my hat againe, because this should be a warning for me, and for that he conceived that opinion of me that I was a good fellow. And so at last with much adoe this controversie was compounded betwixt the clowne and my selfe, my hat being restored unto me for a small price of redemption, which was twelve of their little coynes called fennies, which countervaile twenty pence of our English money. But I would counsel thee gentle reader whatsoever that meanest to travell into Germany, to beware by my example of going into any of their vineyardes without leave. For if thou shalt happen to be apprehended in ipso fecto (as I was) by some rustical and barbarous Corydon of the country, thou mayest perhaps pay a farre deerer price for thy grapes then I did, even thy dearest blood.

(aus: Coryat`s Crudities, hastily gobled up in five moneths travells in France, Savoy, Italy, Rhetia commonly called the Grisons country, Helvetia alias Switzerland, some parts of high Germany and the Netherlands; newly digested in the hungry aire of Odcombe in the county of Somerset, and now dispersed to the nourishment of the travelling members of this kingdome)