Fratris Felicis Fabri Evagatorium in Terrae Sanctae, Arabiae et Egypti Peregrinationem (Volumen Primum)

«Porro distantias locorum et longitudinem viarum, et numerum milliarium per terras et maria nolui ubique ponere, propter magnas diversitates, quas reperi de hoc in libellis militum, et propter incertitudinem illius mensurationis, et propter inaequalitatem milliarium. Nam per mare non potest haberi certitudo de numero milliarium, nisi essent semper aequales venti»

Fabri's plot-architecture is the canonical medieval-pilgrim-novel as pilgrimage-encyclopedia. He opens his work with a defense of the genre he calls "Evagatorium" (vs. Itinerarium), and proceeds book-by-book: (1) the naming + reasons; (2) travel-along to Venice + the galley; (3) Mediterranean-procession; (4) Holy Sepulcher + Mount Calvary + Via Dolorosa; (5) Bethlehem + Hebron + Jordan + Dead Sea; (6) Saint-Chariton-monastery + Wilderness-of-Sabbas; (7) the religious-pilgrim-attractions in Judea-and-Galilee; (8) Saint-Elias-cult + Abacuch + last-volume-transition. The 8-book structure is the canonical-figurate-sketch, so plot scores 88.

«Cumque sol occubuisset et jam tenebresceret, disposuerunt se marinarii nostri ad faciendum ignem S. Johannis in galêa, et hoc modo fecerunt: acceperunt ultra[TR117] XL. lucernas de ligno et cornu perspicuo factas et impositis accensis luminibus suspenderunt eas, unam post aliam ad longam chordam vel funem; cum lucernis accensis sursum ad kebam traxerunt, ita quod lucernae ardentes a keba usque ad transtra dependebant et totam galêam illustrabant.»

The cast-distribution in this opening-sea-passage is micro-typical for Fabri: marinarii + peregrini + Patronus-Domini (= the galley-master) + a single-sailor who has saved a poor-pilgrim from the shore. The 30-pilgrim group is depicted as a corporate-actor ("nos peregrini") without individualized-character-casting; instead cast is represented by function-types (marinarius, gubernator, magister, peregrinus). Fabri's narrative-irony-of-mass-pilgrim-collective-of-the-late-15th-c is preserved in Hassler's 1843-edition without reindividuation, so cast scores 80.

«Iterum: non occidet Deus fame animam justi. Et illud: escam dedit timentibus se. Unde numquam legimus, quod Deus suos electos fame mori permiserit. Martyribus enim ad hoc inclusis, ut fame necarentur, angelos misit, qui eis cibum de coelo attulerunt, (ut) frequentissime legimus.»

Each chapel-of-the-day dedicates 5-15 paragraphs of action-description + 1-2 pages of scriptural-and-patristic-digression + 1-2 short-paragraphs of his-own-commentary-and-back-to-pilgrim-path. The pace-loop repeats 30-40 times across the volume. Hassler-edition preserves the deep-medieval-and-rambling-as-flow that the text demands. So pace scores 84.

«Sunt enim tres Thebae, una in Syria, in regione Galiditidis, in qua erat turris excelsa, de qua mulier cum fragmento molae jaciens illisit capiti Abimelech, qui turrem succindere conabatnr, et dum sentiret se moriturum, jussit se gladio feriri, ne diceretur a foemina percussus, Judic. IX. Secunda Theba est in Egypto, a qua tota regio dicitur Thebaida»

Fabri's late-medieval-Latin is the canonical pulpit-Latin-with-Renaissance-glosses: the loose-relative-clauses, the parenthetical-relative-citations, the case-shift-on-quotations-pulled-from-Bede-and-Augustine. The medieval-Latin prose-mode that could be called the 5-century-feel of late-medieval-preaching: both secular-and-rhetorical with biblic-citations-arising-alla-minuto. Prose scores 89.

«Est enim de facto et realiter loci dispositio talis: mons Oliveti est ad orientem longus, extendens se ab aquilone in austrum, cui in eodem latere adhaeret mons offensionis per longum spatium se extendens. Ad occidentem vero est mons civitatis sanctae, et mons Syon ei adhaeret, post quem est mons Gyon ex opposito montis Oliveti et offensionis»

Fabri's Holy-Land-world is the encyclopedic-pilgrim's literal-map: Mount-Olives (Mons Oliveti) + Mount-of-Offense (Mons Offensionis) + Mount-Sion + Mount-Gion + Valle-Josaphat + Torrent-Cedron + Valle-ennom + Valle-Toph-Tophet + Mare-Mortuum — the entire cosmic-and-physical geography of the sacred-eschatology. The world-as-pilgrims-eye-view-of-Mamluk-Holy-Land is rare and specific to the 1480s-pilgrim-testimony. So world scores 95.

«Accipite ergo, mei desideratissimi, hunc vobis promissum fratris vestri Felicis Evagatorium, et pro solatio duntaxat in eo legite. Nec enim charitatibus vestris libellum hunc offero, tamquam in omnibus authenticam scripturam continentem, examinatam, probatam, auctoritatibus roboratam, aut rationibus firmatam»

The opening functions as a humility-toast: Fabri explicitly de-luxurizes the value of his text. This stylistic-bewegen-performs-the-mendicant-preacher-disclaimer — at-odds-with-the-later-sprawling-profusion-in-the-text-itself. So hook scores 86.

«Idcirco decrevi, hunc librum non Peregrinatorium, nec Itinerarium, nec Viagium, nec alio quovis nomine intitulare, sed EVAGATORIUM Fratris Felicis juste dici, nominari, et esse statui. Ex quo titulo, materia confusa et diversa libri, et compositionis indispositio et distractio patesceret.»

Fabri's defense-of-the-Evagatorium-title is the founding-moment of the encyclopedic-pilgrim-genre as a self-aware-form: he rejects Itinerarium (too-terse), Viagium (too-mundane) and chooses Evagatorium (the wandering-and-rambling) precisely because it admits the rambling-and-diversionary-nature of the text. The volume is the first to name a genre that Braunschweig (Ludolf von S.) would later copy in "Viagium" (c.1350) and that Trittenheim would emulate with his "Cronica" in following centuries — a founding-genre-name, so innov scores 92.

«In progressu ultra agrum et cisternam, est murus antiquus, altus, in via, ubi dicunt fuisse domum patriarchae Jacob, in qua per aliquod tempus habitavit, et murum dicunt esse de reliquiis patriarchalis domus. Ego vero quadam vice hic transiens murum ascendi, et pro certo comperi, quod fuit fulcimentum canalis, per quem olim aquae Jerusalem decurrebant.»

Volumen Primum ends not as a closure but as a transition: Fabri is rounding the Judean-Samarian-mountain-section-of-the-pilgrimage before heading to Sina-of-the-Volume-2-descent. Volume 1's structural-shape ends mid-arc: not-with-closure but mid-rambling. This is structurally canonical for the encyclopedic-pilgrim-genre: volume 2 picks up with Egypt-and-Sinai, and volume 1 closes as the first-half of a 2-tome-cycle. So ending scores 90.