Zur Überlieferung lateinischer Pilgertexte: Strukturierung, Auswahl und Sammlung der Informationen über das Heilige Land

Abstract

Susanna Fischer: On the transmission of Latin pilgrimage narratives: collecting, selecting, and structuring information on the Holy Land.

This paper addresses the transmission and reception of Latin narratives of pilgrimage to the Holy land written from the 4th to the 14th century. An overview shows that some of the texts are transmitted in a large number of manuscripts and in different versions, are excerpted, translated and printed, while others are rarely or little noticed. The main example for a wide reception is the ‹Descriptio terre sancta› of Burchardus de Monte Sion (13th cent.), transmitted in around 100 Latin manuscripts. It is argued that in showing his competence as an author and mainly in changing the structure of the text Burchardus makes himself an authority. Two other works Wilhelm of Boldensele,‹Liber de quibusdam ultramarinis partibus et praecipue de terra sancta› and Ludolf of Sudheim, ‹De itinere terre sancte liber› – both from the 14th century and transmitted in around 30 latin manuscripts – are also briefly discussed.