The Aesthetics of the Storm at Sea in Felix Fabri’s ›Evagatorium‹. Narrating as Pilgramage and Sea Voyage as Medium for Experiencing God

Abstract

A pilgramage resembles the reading of a ›topographical text‹. When the traveler returns home and becomes an author himself, sharing his unique ›reading experience‹, he creates his own literary spaces through which the recipients can wander on their own mental pilgrimage. A special kind of such a spiritual pilgrimage is made possible by reading Felix Fabri’s ›Evagatorium‹. By looking at the narration of his first pilgrimage from 1480, the article shows the role of the sea in this journey to God. It explores the question how the narrative of the sea voyage enables a specific mode of reception, namely a special way of perceiving God and nature, which not only involves an intellectual, but also an emotional component. So, the stormy journey back stages a divine aesthetic of nature which, properly perceived, allows a personal access to God.