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

El Pelegrino dela Vida Humana
Allegorical figures represent ideas, feelings, attitudes, virtues, or vices that are explored in the text
The story was written in Spanish by the French Cistercian Guillaume de Deguileville (1295 – ca. 1358)
This Spanish text was printed in Tours by Henricus Mayer, a German, in 1490 with 44 fine woodcuts
El Pelegrino dela Vida Humana
Short Description
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
- Style
- Genre
1 available facsimile edition(s) of „El Pelegrino dela Vida Humana“
El Pelegrino dela Vida Humana
- Publisher
- Vicent Garcia Editores – Valencia, 2003
- More Information
- Reproduction of the entire original document as detailed as possible (scope, format, colors). The binding may not correspond to the original or current document binding.
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