Travel by Ship in the Late Middle Ages - Felix Fabri’s Pilgrimage Account as a Meticulous Eye-Witness Report

Abstract

The late medieval Dominican friar/priest Felix Fabri from Ulm, Germany, is famous for his extensive travelogues about his pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and for some other instructive texts. Previous scholars have mostly focused on the themes of travel, the encounter with the foreign, Arab and Muslim, world, and religious experiences of a Christian traveler. This paper turns to his amazingly thorough discussion of daily experiences on a ship with pilgrims on their way to Palestine, addressing basic aspects such as sleeping quarters, toilets, sickness, foodstuff, vermin, clothing, lack of hygiene, and sea-sickness. Fabri’s Evagatorium proves to be an extraordinary late medieval narrative that conveys fundamental information about everyday life during a voyage.