El Pelegrino dela Vida Humana

El Pelegrino dela Vida Humana – Vicent Garcia Editores – I-2572 – Biblioteca Nacional de España (Madrid, Spain)

Toulouse (France) — 1490

Illustrated with 44 fine woodcuts: an allegorical pilgrim meets reason, nature, God's grace, penance, charity, idleness, anger, and many other characters

  1. Allegorical figures represent ideas, feelings, attitudes, virtues, or vices that are explored in the text

  2. The story was written in Spanish by the French Cistercian Guillaume de Deguileville (1295 – ca. 1358)

  3. This Spanish text was printed in Tours by Henricus Mayer, a German, in 1490 with 44 fine woodcuts

El Pelegrino dela Vida Humana

Facsimile Copy Available!
Price Category: €
(under 1,000€)
  1. Description
  2. Facsimile Editions (1)
Description
El Pelegrino dela Vida Humana

This is a fascinating work representing the international intellectual exchange that was occurring during the Renaissance – it is an allegorical text written in Spanish by a French author and printed by a German. The work was intended to offer comfort to the faithful in the face of the trials and tribulations of life in the Late Middle Ages, but takes on the familiar literary archetype of a dream.

El Pelegrino dela Vida Humana

During the Middle Ages, allegory was probably the most popular literary device. Such works originated during Late Antiquity, regained popularity during the 12th century, and served the crucial purpose of synthesizing the worldviews of pagan antiquity and contemporary Christianity. Allegorical figures represented, often explicitly, ideas, feelings, attitudes, virtues, or vices that are explored in the text. This French incunabulum (an early printed book predating 1501), was printed in Tours by Henricus Mayer in 1490, and features 44 fine woodcuts adorning the Spanish text. In this story, an allegorical pilgrim encounters Reason, Nature, God’s Grace, Penitence, Charity, Idleness, Anger and many other characters. The author, a French Cistercian named Guillaume de Deguileville (1295 – ca. 1358), refers to the story as a dream, which he hopes will encourage all pilgrims to look to their own path toward the promise of God’s reward. Therefore, life itself is the pilgrimage and we are all pilgrims. Such a message of hope, stressing the intransigence of this life and the temporary nature of the sufferings in it, had tremendous appeal to medieval Europeans, for whom the danger of death by disease, hunger, accident, or violence was far higher than it is today.

Codicology

Alternative Titles
Der Pilger des Lebens
Size / Format
216 pages / 27.2 × 20.0 cm
Origin
France
Date
1490
Language
Illustrations
printer's watermark at the end
Artist / School

Available facsimile editions:
El Pelegrino dela Vida Humana – Vicent Garcia Editores – I-2572 – Biblioteca Nacional de España (Madrid, Spain)
Vicent Garcia Editores – Valencia, 2003
Limited Edition: 3160 copies
Facsimile Editions

#1 El Pelegrino dela Vida Humana

Vicent Garcia Editores – Valencia, 2003
El Pelegrino dela Vida Humana – Vicent Garcia Editores – I-2572 – Biblioteca Nacional de España (Madrid, Spain)
El Pelegrino dela Vida Humana – Vicent Garcia Editores – I-2572 – Biblioteca Nacional de España (Madrid, Spain) Photos with courtesy of the publisher

Publisher: Vicent Garcia Editores – Valencia, 2003
Limited Edition: 3160 copies
Binding: Binding of parchment on wooden cover
Facsimile Copy Available!
Price Category: €
(under 1,000€)
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