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Le propempticon ad libellum de la Vita sancti Martini  : vers une nouvelle tradition de l’itinéraire?

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Abstract

This contribution focuses on the fictional journey of his book back to his homeland that Venantius Fortunatus stages at the end of book 4 of his Vita sancti Martini. This reexamination means to highlight how the tradition of the propempticon ad libellum merges with that of the itinerary to feature a spiritual pilgrimage through the systematic succession of holy shrines the book travels to. Finally, we will suggest a possible echo of Venantius’s text by a fifteenth-century Italian humanist named Benedetto da Piglio, who is also away from his homeland and sends his book for a travel back home on similar structural and thematic patterns.


Open access | Peer reviewed

Submitted: June 19, 2025 | Accepted: July 15, 2025 | Published Jan. 21, 2026 | Language: fr

Keywords Spirituality • Shrines • Book • Itinerary • Venantius Fortunatus • Reception

Copyright © 2026 Laure Chappuis Sandoz. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.


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