Advertisements [310]
[List of Notes and Queries volumes and pages]
Notes.
PILGRIMAGES TO THE HOLY LAND.
In an article in the Retrospective Review (2nd Series, vol. ii. p. 234.) it is stated that the first book ever printed concerning Pilgrimages to the Holy Land was the Peregrinatio Bernhardi de Breydenbach, Moguntiæ, 1486; and in the Preface to the Pylgrymage of Sir Richard Guylforde to the Holy Land in 1506, lately published by the Camden Society, the learned editor remarks that the work of Bernhard de Breydenbach, Opus transmarinæ Peregrinationis ad venerandum et gloriosum Sepulchrum dominicum in Jherusalem (fol. Mogunt. 1486), is believed to be the first book of travels that was printed. Having by me notes of five works printed earlier than that of Breydenbach just mentioned,—and all of these, with one exception, being Pilgrimages to the Holy Land,—I forward them for publication in "N. & Q.," and probably some of your correspondents may be able to add to the list.
1. Ludolf von Suchen ("Ludolphus parochialis ecclesiæ in Suchen rector"), De terra sancta et itinere Jhierosolymitano.—Three undated editions, but in all probability printed before 1480, are mentioned in Brunet's Manuel du Libraire. A German translation, entitled, Von dem gelobten Land vnd Weg gegen Iherusalem, was published at Augsburg in 1477 in 4to. The author travelled about the year 1340. "His journal," observes Dr. Robinson (Biblical Researches in Palestine, iii. p. 11.), "is written with great simplicity, and has something of the marvellous; but is decidedly the best itinerary of the fourteenth century."
2. Marco Polo, the celebrated Eastern traveller, wrote an account of his peregrinations in Italian, about the year 1300. A German translation was printed at Nuremberg as early as 1477, with the following title: Hie hebt sich an das Puch des edeln Ritters vnd Landtfarers Marcho Polo; in dem er schreibt die grossen wunderlichen Ding dieser Welt. (In folio.)
3. Sir John Mandeville. Both French and Italian editions of the well-known "Marvaylous Travailes" of this worthy knight were printed in 1480. (See Brunet ut supr.)
4. Santo Brasca, a gentleman of Milan, made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1480, of which he wrote a journal in Italian, and published it the following year at Milan. Brunet gives the title as follows: Tutto il suo Itinerario di giorno in giorno al sanctissima cita di Jerusalem nell' anno 1480, 4to. This is a very curious and rare book, written in simple and natural style; and at the end of which are "Instructioni a ciascuno che desidra fare questo sanctissimo viagio," and two prayers in verse: "1. Oratione per sancto brascha fatta a piedi nudi in Monte Calvario a di 29 Julij, 1480: 2. Oratione facta in la vale de Josaphat a la sepultura de la Vergene Maria."
5. Johann or Hans Tucher, a counsellor (Rathsherr) of Nuremberg, undertook a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and Mount Sinai in the year 1479, in company with Balthasar, Duke of Mecklenburg, and two of his fellow-citizens. The title of his itinerary in Brunet is, Wallfart und Reise in das gelobte Land. Such was its popularity that it passed through two editions in the same year (1482); the one appearing at Augsburg, in folio; the other, corrected by the author, at Nuremberg, in 4to. (Vide Will's Nürnbergisches Gelehrten-Lexicon.) The work is, however, very rare. In it full directions are given for the guidance of all such as might thereafter be disposed to venture forth with scrip and staff on these pious but somewhat perilous expeditions.