The Holy Land in Observant Franciscan Texts (C. 1480-1650)

In The Holy Land in Observant Franciscan Texts (c. 1480-1650) Marianne Ritsema van Eck analyses for the first time the development of the complex Observant Franciscan engagement with the Holy Land during the early modern period. During these eventful centuries friars of the Franciscan establishment in Jerusalem increasingly sought to cultivate strong ideological ties between themselves and the Holy Land, participating actively in contemporary literatures of geographia sacra and Levantine pilgrimage and travel. It becomes clear how the friars constructed a collective memory using the ideological canon of their order - featuring Bonaventurian theology, marvels of the east, cartography, apocalyptic visions of history, calls for Crusade, and finally a possessio-pilgrimage of the Holy Land by Francis.