This book examines the international literary phenomenon of the Jerusalem pilgrimage through the prism of four late-medieval writers, two German and two English. It explores the process of collective and individual identity construction; engages with the uneasy relationship between curiosity and pilgrimage; and investigates both the relevance of genre and the advent of print to the development of pilgrimage writing. Ultimately pilgrimage is revealed as a conceptual space with a near-liturgical status, unrestricted by geographical boundaries and accessible both literally and virtually.
