In the early spring of 1358 Francis Petrarch was invited by his
friend Giovanni Mandelli, a leading military and political figure
of Visconti Milan, to go on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Pleased
at the invitation, Petrarch nevertheless declined to undertake the
journey. Fear of the sea, of shipwreck, and of "slow death and
nausea worse than death" held him back. While Petrarch would not
make the literal journey he offered Mandelli a pilgrimage guide
instead of his companionship: "nevertheless, I shall be with you in
spirit, and since you have requested it, I will accompany you with
this writing, which will be for you like a brief itinerary."
Composed over three days between March and April of 1358, the
Itinerarium ad sepulchrum domini nostri Yesu Christi takes the
characteristic Petrarchan form of an epistle to a friend. Delivered
to his correspondent in the form of an elegant booklet, the work
presents a literary self-portrait that was meant to stand as "the
more stable effigy of my soul and intellect" as well as "a
description of places." Although the Holy Land is the ostensible
destination of the pilgrimage, more than half of this charming
guidebook is devoted to Petrarch's leisurely and loving
descriptions of Italy's physical and cultural landscape. Upon
reaching the Holy Land, Petrarch transforms himself into one of the
greatest ten-cities-in-four-days Baedekers of all time, as Mandelli
and the reader race through sacred landmarks and sites and end up,
not at the sepulchrum domini nostri, but at the tomb of
Alexander.
Theodore Cachey has prepared the first English-language
translation of the Itinerarium. Based on an authoritative
14th-century manuscript in the BibliotecaStatale of Cremona, which
is, according to the explicit declaration of the scribe, a copy of
Petrarch's 1358 autograph, the translation is accompanied by the
manuscript reproduced in facsimile and by a transcription of the
Latin text. Cachey's extensive introduction and notes discuss
Petrarch's text within the multiple contexts of travel in the
Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and contemporary political and
cultural issues, including Petrarch's relation to emergent forms of
"cartographic writing" and Renaissance "self-fashioning."
Petrarch's little book reveals him to be a man of his time, but one
whose voice speaks clearly to us across centuries. The Itinerarium
is a jewel rediscovered for the modern reader.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
