ABSTRACT

Based on the work of Felix Fabri and contemporary pilgrimage accounts, this chapter examines the ways in which the processes of eye-witnessing were narrated. Travelling through the Sinai desert on their way to the monastery of St Catherine, the Dominican Fabri and his fellow travel companions made an astonishing observation: about noon on the 20th of September 1483, on a mountain-top at some distance, they saw an animal that they first recognised as a camel. The comparison between Fabri’s different versions showed that he adjusted his writings quite flexibly according to the rank, education and expectations of his intended audiences. By relying especially on eye-witnessing, travellers such as Fabri were to guide the understanding and imagination of readers and to educate and to entertain them at the same time. Fabri was able to solve the mystery when eye-witness accounts led to confusion and uncertainty.