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Imagined Travels and Neoplatonic Pilgrimage in Petrarch’s ‘Itinerarium ad sepulcrum Domini nostri Yehsu Cristi’, in Bauer, Martin, Booth, Philip and Fischer, Susanna (Eds.): To Jerusalem and Beyond: Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Study of Latin Travel Literature, c.1200-1500, Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing, 2023 (Das Mittelalter. Perspektiven mediävistischer Forschung. Beihefte, Volume 19), p. 189–208. https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.998.c15846

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https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.998
ISBN 978-3-96822-129-8 (PDF)
ISBN 978-3-96822-130-4 (Hardcover)

Published

07/20/2023

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Authors

Martin Bauer

Imagined Travels and Neoplatonic Pilgrimage in Petrarch’s ‘Itinerarium ad sepulcrum Domini nostri Yehsu Cristi’

Abstract Petrarch’s ‘Itinerarium ad sepulcrum Domi­ni nostri Yehsu Cristi’ (1358) is noteworthy among late medieval travel and pilgrimage literature for its unusual features, such as its epistolary form, its detailed descrip­tions of Italian antiques, and its author never actually hav­ing visited the Holy Land. However, by comparison with other works from the same period, such as the similarly structured letter dealing with the famous ascent of Mount Ventoux (‘Ad familiares’ 4.1) as well as ‘De otio religioso’, it can be demonstrated that Petrarch combines elements of pilgrimage literature and Neoplatonic philosophy in order to make a statement about the relationships between clas­sical learning, Christian faith, and the human soul’s spiri­tual journey to God.