Petrarch's Guide to the Holy Land
Subtitle: Itinerary to the Sepulcher of Our Lord Jesus Christ = Itinerarium Ad Sepulchrum Domini Nostri Yehsu Christi
Contributors: Biblioteca Statale Di Cremona (Corporate Author)
Edition: Facsimile edition
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press
Published: December 2002
Language: eng; lat
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 262
ISBN-13: 9780268038731
Subjects: Christianity; Classic travel writing; Literary studies: classical, early & medieval; Prose & writers: classical, early & medieval; Medieval And Early Modern Latin Literature; Literary Criticism; Literature - Classics / Criticism; Italian; Ancient Rome; Christianity - History - Catholic; Medieval; Ancient and Classical; 1304-1374; Description and travel; Early works to 1800; Geography; Italy; Knowledge; Palestine; Petrarca, Francesco,
Description: "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 and sepulchrum domini nostri Yehsu 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."--BOOK JACKET.