Viaje a Oriente de Fray Diego de Mérida. Edición crítica y estudio

Abstract

This doctoral thesis focuses on the study and critical editing of the work Viaje a Oriente of Fray Diego de Mérida, Jerónimos brother of the monastery of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe in the current province of Cáceres, as well as in the circumstances and details surrounding the story of the trip. The Extremaduran friar embarked in 1507 in the city of Venice bound for the island of Cyprus and concluded his voyage–or at least its narration–, in 1512, on the island of Crete. Our starting point when analyzing the Journey to the East will be Fray Diego’s letter, even though we will also rely on other contemporary testimonies that illustrate the time and place, constituting a valuable corpus to identify the intricacies of the pilgrim experience, where all pilgrims, whether secular or religious, recognize the same difficulties. To this will be added the study of the work and the figure of the author, Fray Diego de Mérida, collecting the biographical and bibliographic data that is known, as well as those that they attend to the historical news of their trip. Even though there is little news about the life of fray Diego, beyond some information given in codex B and by Antonio Rodríguez Moñino, who points to the monastery of Guadalupe as a possible source of biographical revelation of the author, we will approach to the perspective of the time and the objectives that motivated the journey and its subsequent narration in the form of a letter. We will track his trips, completing and expanding the corresponding information when so necessary, setting them chronologically from his departure from Venice. This information, accompanied by a study of the time and its spirit - understood as the essential characteristic representing the tendencies and inclinations of a person or community - will help us provide a greater degree of understanding to the story and its peculiarities.