Pilgrimage of the Virgin Mary Facsimile Edition

Pilgrimage of the Virgin Mary is the New High German translation of the Latin devotional work Itinerarium seu peregrinatio beatae virginis Mariae. Printed in Basel in 1489 by Leonhard Ysenhut, the book transforms the life of the Virgin into a spiritual journey. Its readers are invited to contemplate Mary not only as the mother of Christ, but also as a guide toward repentance, mercy, and salvation.

A Devotional Journey in Seven Stages

The text unfolds in seven parts, tracing Mary’s life from her origins and childhood through her motherhood and final glorification. Each stage becomes an occasion for prayer and moral reflection. The language of pilgrimage gives the narrative an inward direction: the reader advances through Mary’s story while examining the condition of the soul.

Print Shaped by Manuscript Tradition

Although this volume is an early printed book rather than a manuscript, its pages preserve the visual habits of manuscript culture. The volume contains fifty-nine woodcuts, which accompany and clarify the devotional narrative. Dense Gothic type is enlivened by red rubrication, underlining, and hand-painted initials. Larger woodcut initials introduce major textual divisions, while smaller red letters articulate prayers and subsections. Printing and handwork thus remain closely intertwined.

Mary as Intercessor and Model

Throughout the book, Mary appears as the mother of mercy, a compassionate mediator approached by the sinner in distress. Her life provides both narrative structure and devotional example, joining theological instruction to intimate prayer.

A Threshold Between Two Book Worlds

The volume stands at the meeting point of late medieval devotion and the expanding culture of print. Its carefully ordered pages reveal how the printed book inherited the rhythms, colors, and spiritual authority of the illuminated codex.