| Description |
xiii, 302 pages : illustrations, map ; 23 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 231-287) and index. |
| Contents |
Introduction. Travail and travel writing -- Part One. Subjectivity, authority, and the "exotic". Exoticism as the appropriation of travail -- Travail and authority in the forgotten age of discovery -- Part Two. Pilgrimage as literate labor. Memory work and the labor of writing -- Pilgrim as investigator -- Part Three. Discovering the proximate. Becoming Petrarch -- Chivalric Mediterranean of Pero Tafur -- Coda : beyond 1500; or, Travel's labor's lost. |
| Summary |
Over the course of the Middle Ages, the economies of Europe, Asia, and northern Africa became more closely integrated, fostering the international and intercontinental journeys of merchants, pilgrims, diplomats, missionaries, and adventurers. During a time in history when travel was often difficult, expensive, and fraught with danger, these wayfarers composed accounts of their experiences in unprecedented numbers and transformed traditional conceptions of human mobility. Exploring this phenomenon, The Medieval Invention of Travel draws on an impressive array of sources to develop original readings of canonical figures such as Marco Polo, John Mandeville, and Petrarch, as well as a host of lesser-known travel writers. As Shayne Aaron Legassie demonstrates, the Middle Ages inherited a Greco-Roman model of heroic travel, which viewed the ideal journey as a triumph over temptation and bodily travail. Medieval travel writers revolutionized this ancient paradigm by incorporating practices of reading and writing into the ascetic regime of the heroic voyager, fashioning a bold new conception of travel that would endure into modern times. Engaging methods and insights from a range of disciplines, this is a comprehensive account of how medieval travel writers and their audiences reshaped the intellectual and material culture of Europe for centuries to come. |
| Subject |
Travel writing -- Europe, Western -- History -- To 1500.
|
|
Travel writing. |
|
Western Europe. |
|
History. |
| Chronological Term |
To 1500 |
| Subject |
Travel in literature. |
|
Travel in literature.
|
|
Literature, Medieval -- History and criticism.
|
|
Literature, Medieval. |
|
Pilgrims and pilgrimages in literature.
|
|
Pilgrims and pilgrimages in literature. |
| Genre/Form |
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
|
|
History.
|
| ISBN |
9780226442563 hardcover ; alkaline paper |
|
022644256X hardcover ; alkaline paper |
|
9780226446622 paperback ; alkaline paper |
|
022644662X paperback ; alkaline paper |
|
9780226442730 electronic book |
| Standard No. |
40027046268 |
|
