My Books in Afternoon Sun 3........ Friar Felix, and Discovery
Here are some of my history books. The two on the right (that you see no titles for) are Friar Felix At Large - A 15th Century Pilgrimage to the Holy Land; and Once To Sinai - the Further Adventures of Friar Felix Fabri. Both are by H.F.M. Prescott. The friar kept a journal. What interests me (and historians, for that matter) is his keen and accurate observations - and his candid honesty, even if it was in opposition to what one was "supposed" to experience.
These accounts are not the more common sort that seem more about the limited ways of perceiving that travelers have who don't get out much (that is, out of their own cultural conditioning). But possibly more than that, what makes Friar Felix's account so readable is how he tells a good story (and a good translator helps, too). (BTW, the books are written about the friar, with text of his accounts interwoven, not the friar's account as a stand-alone.)
These are two among hundreds of books of travel accounts I have in my library, from antiquity through the Age of Discovery. "Discovery" is the key here - exploration... experiencing where that road goes after it disappears into the trees, or the path that winds up a slope - and you have an insatiable need to follow it to experience the sight once you clear the crest of the hill...
My Books in Afternoon Sun 3........ Friar Felix, and Discovery
Here are some of my history books. The two on the right (that you see no titles for) are Friar Felix At Large - A 15th Century Pilgrimage to the Holy Land; and Once To Sinai - the Further Adventures of Friar Felix Fabri. Both are by H.F.M. Prescott. The friar kept a journal. What interests me (and historians, for that matter) is his keen and accurate observations - and his candid honesty, even if it was in opposition to what one was "supposed" to experience.
These accounts are not the more common sort that seem more about the limited ways of perceiving that travelers have who don't get out much (that is, out of their own cultural conditioning). But possibly more than that, what makes Friar Felix's account so readable is how he tells a good story (and a good translator helps, too). (BTW, the books are written about the friar, with text of his accounts interwoven, not the friar's account as a stand-alone.)
These are two among hundreds of books of travel accounts I have in my library, from antiquity through the Age of Discovery. "Discovery" is the key here - exploration... experiencing where that road goes after it disappears into the trees, or the path that winds up a slope - and you have an insatiable need to follow it to experience the sight once you clear the crest of the hill...