Pierre de Pennis (ca. 14th century)

by Lewis Ferrero (See Chinese translation)

Information on Pierre de Pennis (alternative names) is scarce; his exact dates of birth and death are unknown, as are their locations. His last name could be translated as “from Penna”, which would indicate that he originally came from the city of Penna in southern Italy. His use of Latin would also support this theory (Kohler 1902; Roggema et al. 2009). De Pennis declares himself “ordinis fratrum praedicatorum” (part of an order of preachers), believed to be Dominican monks. His time and place of death is unknown.

His Libellus de locis ultramarinis, quem composuit frater Petrus de Pennis, ordinis fratrum Predicatorum has twenty-two chapters and can be separated into three parts:

● Chapters 1-2: the author’s explanation of the circumstances and his reasoning for writing this book.
● Chapters 3-6: an abridged history of Jerusalem from its founding in 1208 and a brief history of Palestine from Melchizedek (date unknown, see Genesis 14:18-20) to the Arab Conquest (7th century).
● Chapters 7-21: a geological description of Palestine, Syria, and Lower Egypt, with a special focus on their holy sites.

In the first section of the book, de Pennis notes that he has travelled on pilgrimage to Jerusalem himself and that he wanted to write a piece that preachers could show their congregations to encourage more people to undertake pilgrimages themselves. However, he also admits that the final section of his book includes reproduced oral and written accounts of locations that he had not visited.

Kohler has identified a number of other reproduced sources in the historical segment of de Pennis’s work as well. His account of the Holy Land’s history closely resembles that of Jacques de Vitry’s Historia Hierosolymitana (1.1, chapters 2-3, Bongars; 1051, line 29; at 1053, line 3). In most of chapter 3, it either copies de Vitry’s work word for word or summarises it (see chapter 3 start and end, chapter 5, and start of chapter 6). Chapter 6 is notable for its final content, where de Pennis describes and laments the loss of the Holy Land from Christian control. He follows with a series of recriminations, which Kohler notes were most likely imagined or assumed to have happened.

The geological section has little description and does not read as a travellers account. Rather, it is a list of locations with their biblical significance attached. Kohler describes it as an objective treatise of sacred geology, with strong similarities to at least seven other medieval texts. For example:

Enarratio locorum T-S by Eugesippus - Fretellus (Röhricht 1890, no. 83)
De situ urbis Jerusalem (Röhricht 1890, no.86)
Libellus de locis sanctus by pseudo-Theodoricus (Röhricht 1890, no. 12)
The writings of Oliver the Scholastic (Ěd. Hoogeweg, pp. 3-24)
The writings of Phillipus Savoneris (Röhricht 1890, no. 145)
Jean of Wurzbourg (Röhricht 1890, no. 9), and
The Guide for the Use of Pilgrims (Bernard 1894)

These texts had become widely used by all travellers as both basic guides for pilgrimage and as blueprints for recording their experiences and impressions on their travels. De Pennis almost certainly used these texts in his descriptive sections, since Kohler was able to trace most sentences back to this group of texts. It is very probable that only a few of de Pennis’s actual impressions or experiences made it into this text.