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Writing the Holy Land

The Franciscans of Mount Zion and the Construction of a Cultural Memory, 1300–1550

Palgrave Macmillan
  • Winner of the 2021 San Francesco Prize
  • Engages with the growing field of memory studies and advances scholarship on pilgrimage and ‘crusade memory’, two emerging areas of research
  • Presents a path-breaking case study on the creation process of cultural memory, based on extensive archival research on a number of unknown medieval manuscripts
  • Appeals to scholars and students of medieval history, book history, manuscript studies, history of the Middle East, cultural memory, medieval literature, religious studies, and theology

Part of the book series: The New Middle Ages (TNMA)

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Table of contents (10 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xvii
  2. Introduction: Writing the Holy Land

    • Michele Campopiano
    Pages 1-24
  3. The Franciscan Holy Land

    • Michele Campopiano
    Pages 25-53
  4. Between the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance

    • Michele Campopiano
    Pages 225-280
  5. Conclusions: Loss, Trauma, Recovery

    • Michele Campopiano
    Pages 349-353
  6. Back Matter

    Pages 355-438

About this book

The book shows how the Franciscans in Jerusalem in the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries wrote works which standardized the cultural memory of the Holy Land. The experience of the late medieval Holy Land was deeply connected to the presence of the Franciscans of the Convent of Mount Zion in Jerusalem, who welcomed and guided pilgrims. This book analyses this construction of a shared memory based on the continuous availability of these texts in the Franciscan library of Mount Zion, where they were copied and adapted to respond to new historical contexts. This book shows how the Franciscans developed a representation of the Holy Land by elaborating on its history and describing its religious groups and the geography of the region. This representation circulated among pilgrims and influenced how contemporaries imagined the Holy Land

Authors and Affiliations

  • Centre for Medieval Studies and Department of English and Related Literature, University of York, York, UK

    Michele Campopiano

About the author

Michele Campopiano is Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) at the Centre for Medieval Studies of the University of York, UK. He has participated in a number of international projects and held several grants, including a Humboldt Fellowship for Experienced Researchers. 


Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Writing the Holy Land

  • Book Subtitle: The Franciscans of Mount Zion and the Construction of a Cultural Memory, 1300–1550

  • Authors: Michele Campopiano

  • Series Title: The New Middle Ages

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52774-7

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: History, History (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-52773-0Published: 17 December 2020

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-52776-1Published: 18 December 2021

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-52774-7Published: 16 December 2020

  • Series ISSN: 2945-5936

  • Series E-ISSN: 2945-5944

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XVII, 438

  • Number of Illustrations: 5 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: History of Medieval Europe, Medieval Literature, History of the Middle East, History of the Book

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 109.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access