Wilhelm von Boldensele

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Wilhelm von Boldensele , actually Otto de Nyenhusen , († around 1339 in Cologne ) was the author of the Liber de quibusdam ultramarinis partibus et praecipue de Terra sancta , a travelogue that was widespread in the Middle Ages.

Life

Otto von Nyenhausen was born as the son of the ministerial ministerial Johannes von Nyenhausen (presumably Neuenhausen near Bremerhaven), who was in the service of the Archbishop of Bremen, and a noble lady from the Lüneburg family of Boldensele.

Otto came to the Dominican monastery of St. Paul in Minden , but left it at his own request in 1330 and from then on carried the name Wilhelm von Boldensele. He traveled to Avignon , where he received absolution from the Curia for his unauthorized exit from the order.

In 1332 he began a pilgrimage to Palestine via the port of Noli , which led him to Egypt and the St. Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai . The reasons for the departure and the exact circumstances of the trip are still unclear. Nevertheless, he was in 1335 at the Holy grave in Jerusalem for grave Knights defeated.

After his return he stayed in 1336 in Königsaal with Abbot Peter von Zittau . From there he traveled back to Avignon in 1337. There he met Cardinal Elias Talleyrand , for whom he wrote a report on his trip. After he had completed this in September 1337, he presumably made the decision to return to the Königsaal and enter the convent there. However, he died in Cologne in 1339.

Travel report

The report Liber de quibusdam ultramarinis partibus et praecipue de Terra sancta was written in 1337 at the suggestion of Elias Talleyrand in Avignon. Wilhelm von Boldensele mainly reports on striking buildings and dispenses with the mythical stories typical of this era.

reception

The travelogue was translated into French in 1351. At the end of the 14th century, it was translated into German, more precisely into Ripuarian .

In addition to Ludolf von Sudheim , Jean de Mandeville was influenced by this travelogue.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Maria Christine Meindl: "The Holy Land in Late Medieval Travel Reports" (PDF; 528 kB), University of Vienna 2010
  2. The exact sequence of his travels in the Holy Roman Empire is unclear.