The Curious East in a Dialectical Crossfire: Early Modern German Writers Respond to the Allure of the Orient

While travel and pilgrimage were already important topics in medieval German literature, the fifteenth century witnessed a virtual explosion of travelogues and pilgrimage accounts. The discovery of the Orient gained in great significance by the end of the fifteenth century and continued to be of central importance well into the following age. This talk will highlight the remarkable contributions by the Nuremberg traveler Felix Fabri and his highly perceptive observations of the Holy Land.