Incontrare i musulmani «in Oriente» tra esperienza e topoi del viaggio. Viaggiatori e lettori quattrocenteschi

The article investigates how the encounter with the Islamic world is described in two fifteenth-century pilgrimage accounts: Marco di Bartolomeo Rustici’s "Dimostrazione dell’andata del Santo Sepolcro o al Monte Sinai" (1447-1455) and Antonio da Crema’s "Itinerario" (1486). The two itineraries share some typical features of late medieval peregrinationes: they stand as first-hand accounts of journeys to the holy places of the Old and New Testament, and filter their description through a written tradition. Unlike other pilgrimage accounts, however, they deal with the Islamic world both from an everyday and practical point of view (according to the most widespread perspective) and from a theological one, devoting space to the life of Muhammad and the «errors» of the Qu’ran. The reading of the two texts allows one to grasp the problematic nature of the notion of “experience” and to measure the influence of literary tradition: unlike Antonio da Crema, who uses his information read in books for a deeper appropriation of a journey he actually accomplished, Marco di Bartolomeo Rustici is an armchair traveler: his itinerary to the Holy Land does not reflect a physical displacement, but a spiritual quest nourished by the literary knowledge of books. However, the combination of travel topoi achieves such realism that specialists have long debated the possible authenticity of the account.