Abstract

Perception, Representation, and Social Ties. A Saxon Pilgrim reports from Venice (1479)

This article analyzes the relation between perception, representation and social factors in late-medieval reports about pilgrimages. The example taken into consideration is a hitherto unknown letter of the knight and doctor decretorum Otto Spiegel, who in 1479 embarked – together with the well-known Nuremberg merchants Hans Tucher and Sebald Rieter – in Venice on a journey towards the Holy Land. In contrast to them, Spiegel did not write a detailed account of his pilgrimage, but he sent a letter to his lords in Saxonia in which he informed them about his experiences in the Serenissima while waiting two months for the pilgrim-vessel to depart. The information given by the pilgrim is examined with regard to the value of the source – in fact Spiegel's account gives new information about the peace signed by Venice and the Ottomans in 1479 and the subsequent exodus of the inhabitants of the town Scutari. Furthermore it is argued that what Spiegel wanted to tell his lords and the way he narrates it is closely linked to his role as a learned councillor at the court of the dukes of Saxony: he did not only make a spiritual voyage, but had to organise the pilgrimage of Ernst of Saxony. In this respect, it is shown that pilgrimages like Spiegel's had – alongside the well-known religious purposes – goals that were linked to their secular life, in the case of Spiegel to his political career.