Niccolò da Poggibonsi (Latin:Nicolaus de Podiobonito) was aFranciscanfriar of the 14th century who made a famouspilgrimage to theHoly Land in 1345–1350, which he described inItalian in hisLibro d'oltramare.[1]
FromPoggibonsi inTuscany, Niccolò, with seven companions (six of whom eventually returned home), departed forVenice, from where they embarked for a sea voyage to Cyprus. He sojourned for some months on the island in the service ofKing Hugh IV. He then left forJaffa, and from there visited the shrines inJerusalem (where he served for four months in theChurch of the Holy Sepulchre) and the myriad holy sites ofPalestine. He went as far asDamascus intending to visit "Babylonia" and "Chaldaea" (probablyBaghdad), which he never did.
Niccolò then left by ship fromBeirut and stopped in Egypt, where he visitedAlexandria, "Babylonia" (probablyFustat,Old Cairo),New Cairo, and the places in theSinai mentioned in theOld Testament. There he also visited the ancientSaint Catherine's Monastery. He continued north toGaza and there turned back towards theNile Delta, where he took a ship fromDamietta back to Cyprus.
In Cyprus Niccolò boarded a ship for Italy. The ship followed an adventurous course, taking him by theAnatolian coast of theOttoman Empire, to call in the port ofTripoli, and nearPoreč on theAdriatic, where he was captured by brigands but managed to escape. He arrived safely in Venice late in 1349 and went toFerrara, where he was detained until the spring of 1350, when he finally, after five years of wandering, returned to Poggibonsi.
Upon his return, Niccolò recounted his travels in theLibro d'oltramare ("Book ofOutremer"). Rich in detail, it describes the sights, the distances on the roads, the tolls paid, and theindulgences associated with various shrines. His descriptions of buildings and cities are unusually detailed, and the picture he paints of Jerusalem was based on four months residence there. His entire pilgrimage was extraordinarily long by the standards of the time. This is probably attributable to his desire to see sites that lacked the facilities for receiving pilgrims, for visiting far-off sites in Egypt, Syria, and Iraq, and his financial difficulties (his first stay in Cyprus necessitated by the need to raise cash). Organised trips departed regularly from Venice, bringing pilgrims to Jerusalem and its suburbs (likeMount Tabor), but Niccolò eschewed typical tourism.
Niccolò informs us that the house of theVirgin Mary atNazareth, long a Christian holy place, was destroyed, possibly by theMamelukes sometime after 1289, when it was last recorded standing. When Niccolò visited the site, all that remained was a cove with three walls. Niccolò is also an important witness to a supposedMongol conquest of Jerusalem in 1300, since he records that the Mongols removed a gate (the "Golden Gate") from theTemple of Jerusalem (today theDome of the Rock) and had it transferred to Damascus.
TheLibro d'oltramare was translated intoGerman around 1467 byGabriel Muffel ofNuremberg, who was probably working out ofPassau. Anilluminated manuscript (Egerton 1900) of the German translation from 1467, purports to be a description of Muffel's visit to the Holy Land in 1465. The earliest manuscripts of Niccolò'sLibro are unillustrated, but the Egerton 1900 has 147 miniatures. TheLibro d'oltramare was first published anonymously in an Italian translation based on the German inBologna in 1500. This version, theViazo da Venesia al Sancto Iherusalem, contained 145woodcuts and twenty-six printings before 1600.
Nothing is known regarding the rest of his life.
