Felix Fabri

Brother Felix Fabri , Dominican monk of the monastery of Ulm (about 1440-1502), belonged to some erudite pilgrims who, in second half of XVe century, in the “twilight of the Great Voyage”, took the holy overland route and left of their tour of the accounts of a richness without precedent. And, among most astonishing, it is necessary to count Frère Felix Fabri, “undoubtedly the most original figure of this generation of pilgrim-scientists” according to Aryeh Graboïs. Felix Fabri made the voyage in the East twice, the first time in 1480 (from April 14th to November 16th), the other in 1483 (from April 13rd, 1483 to January 30th, 1484). With its Evagatorium in the form of testimony, he hoped to leave with his brothers remained with the monastery “a collection to reading in the joy and good mood”. And it reached that point: its unequalled liveliness, its thirst for any knowledge and its desire all to say return it near and attaching across the centuries. This major work largely exceeds the framework of a simple account of voyage: the concrete details côtoient the references érudites there and the geographical and historical digressions mix with the experiments with the man and the observations with the traveller. Frère Felix draws there his own character as hero facing the terrestrial and maritime dangers. It is about a monumental work, which makes discover an author out of the commun run between Moyen-âge and Rebirth and which only can return to the character of novel that Fabri became its genuine fabric of man: hero of the adventure, walker of the faith, erudite well-read man and storyteller full with charms.

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