The Voyage of Saint Brendan: Journey to The Promised Land. The Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis Translated with an introduction by John J. O’Meara. Dublin: Dolmen Press, 1976. Pp xxi, 71, uncut. With woodcuts reproduced from Sankt Brandans Seefahrt, Printed in 1476 by Anton Sorg at Augsburg.  A fine bright copy in lightly chipped dust jacket.

Limited Edition of 750 Copies, Signed by John O’Meara.  

Saint Brendan the Navigator was a man immersed in legend. The tales of his voyages, though lacking in historical evidence, formed one of the sources of Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy’ and inspired seafarers down to the time of Columbus. His name has been linked with the discovery of America and the mysterious appearance of Christianity among the Aztecs. Brendan seems to have been a traveler from the very beginning. The sea was in his bones and he sailed around Ireland visiting various islands, eventually going further and further from home. It was from another monk, named Barinthus, that Brendan was told of a land to the west called the ‘Land of Promise of the Saints, the land which God will give us on the last day’. It was understood that this land had been visited by others and was truly a ‘paradise’. Brendan’s voyages to this land were recorded in the ‘Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis’ (or The Voyage of Saint Brendan the Abbot).

To test the feasibility of such a voyage, Tim Severin, of County Cork, read the text carefully, and constructed a boat to Brendans specifications, and during the period 17 May 1976, to 26 June 1977, sailed from the Dingle Peninsula to Newfoundland, Canada.