the illustrated versions of Niccolo da Poggibonsi's "Libro d'Oltramare"
Subsequent Statement of Responsibility
M. F. F. B. Trachtenberg
.PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC
Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.
New York University
Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.
2011
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Specific Material Designation and Extent of Item
535
DISSERTATION (THESIS) NOTE
Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree
Ph.D.
Body granting the degree
New York University
Text preceding or following the note
2011
SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
From 1346-50, the Franciscan Niccolò da Poggibonsi spent four years traveling in the Christian Holy Land, resulting in the first vernacular, fully illustrated pilgrimage account: the Libro d'Oltramare. The dissertation examines the historical importance of four previously unstudied manuscript copies of this book, which each include between around 100 and 150 architectural drawings, ranging from elevations of buildings like the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem to portraits of entire cities like Cairo and Damascus. Three of the manuscripts are datable to the fifteenth century, while the oldest is identified as the autograph copy, having been created in the second half of the fourteenth century. The manuscripts and their architectural illustrations inspired an anonymous printed book, published first in Bologna in 1500 as the Viazo da Venesia al Sancto Iherusalem et al Monte Sinai and subsequently in over 60 editions in or around Venice from 1518 to 1800, as the Viaggio da Venetia al Sancto Sepulchro et al Monte Sinai. A discussion of the motivation for the illustration of pilgrimage accounts, especially in relation to the concept of a "mental pilgrimage," serves as the basis for an exploration of how the experience and recreation of the architecture of the Holy Land was mediated by the book culture of pilgrimage accounts. The dissertation traces the parallel developments of the genre of pilgrimage accounts with architectural replicas of the Holy Land created in Italy, beginning with Santo Stefano in Bologna. Special consideration is given to the role of the Franciscans as Custodians of the Holy Land and as promoters of a new form of affective piety, in relation to the Basilica of San Francesco in Assisi, the Sacro Monte di Varallo, and Bernardino Amico's Trattato delle Piante & Immagini de Sacri Edifizi di Terra Santa. The dissertation also reexamines the idea of the architectural model and copy in the context of the evolving relation between hand-made drawings, textual descriptions, and printed architectural images in pilgrimage accounts, using as primary examples the Anastasis Rotunda, the Dome of the Rock, and the Temple of Solomon.