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Abstract
Composed in the 1280s by a Dominican friar, Burchard of Mount Sion’s Descriptio Terre Sancte remained an influential account of the Holy Land for centuries. The impact of this text is reflected not only by the large number of extant manuscripts, but also by its rich printing history. And yet, although the Descriptio attracted considerable scholarly attention in the last decades, its shift into the world of print has not yet been studied. The aim of this paper is to explore this transition for the first time, focusing on the three earliest printed editions of the work. Inter alia, we examine the contexts within which the Descriptio was printed, the prologues which were appended to the Descriptio, the study aids added to it, and how its editors intervened in the text. This analysis reveals the range of ways in which early modern editors who appreciated the medieval Descriptio attempted to fit it into a cultural world whose intellectual culture was undergoing significant changes.
Acknowledgement
I would like to express my deep gratitude to the special issue’s editors, as well as to the anonymous reviewers, for their numerous corrections and suggestions.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. Recent works on Burchard’s Descriptio include: Rubin, “The Manuscript Tradition,” 257–86; Burchard, Descriptio, ed. Bartlett; Rubin, “A Missing Link,” 55–90.
2. Basic information concerning these editions is provided by Bartlett in his introduction to the recent edition of the Descriptio. Burchard, Descriptio, ed. Bartlett, lviii–lxvi. A basic survey of these editions is also included in the introduction to an older edition of the Descriptio: Laurent, ed., Peregrinatores, 11–16.
3. McKitterick, Print, Manuscript and the Search for Order; Della Rocca de Candal, Grafton, and Sachet, eds., Printing and Misprinting.
4. I am referring here and elsewhere in the paper only to the so-called “Long Version” of the Descriptio, as it is this redaction which is provided by the three editions analysed below. For a brief discussion of the long and short versions of the Descriptio, see Pringle, Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 46–51.
5. For an updated list of the manuscripts of the long version, see Rubin, Ferro, and Schonhardt: https://daks.uni-kassel.de/handle/123456789/40 [accessed 1 September 2022]. For a list of the short version manuscripts, see Rotter, “Windrose statt Landkarte,” 103–4.
6. Campopiano, Writing the Holy Land, 351.
7. Feyerabend, Reyßbuch deß heyligen Lands; Simon, Das Reyßbuch deß heyligen Lands.
8. For more information on the neglected manuscripts and Burchard’s biography, see Rubin, “A Newly Discovered Extended Version,” 173–82; Rubin, “A Missing Link,” 57–8.
9. For some of these collections, as well as for the popularity of Polo and Mandeville, see MacLean, “Early Modern Travel Writing (1),” 62–76.
10. The exemplar that I used, scanned by the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, has no title page, but the work’s title is noted in the author’s closing comments on fol. 471r (numbers added by hand). For a general description of the Rudimentum, see Worm, “Rudimentum Novitiorum,” vol. 2, 1304–1307; Worm, Geschichte und Weltordnung, 263–370. On the German encyclopaedias of the time, see Grafton, New Worlds, Ancient Texts, 13–22.
11. Von den Brincken, Studien zur Universalkartographie des Mittelalters, 270.
12. Duncan, Index, A History of the: A Bookish Adventure, 49–112; Eisenstein, The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe, 72.
13. For a comparison between the original prologue of the Descriptio and that which appears in the Rudimentum, see Herkenhoff, Die Darstellung aussereuropäischer Welten, 147–51.
14. “Reperietur […] et certissima terre promissionis ad oculum depinxio cum interpretante commento certissimo de loco in locum sine quo nunquam sacer vel raro capietur mentetenus biblie textus.” Rudimentum, fol. 13v.
15. Hamburg, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, MS Cod. Geogr. 59. I intend to present a detailed discussion of the relationship between these two versions elsewhere. Here it should suffice to say that they share common errors. For example, instead of “sed proditum et captum ignominiose” (Burchard, Descriptio, ed. Bartlett, 42), both have “sed proditum et caput [Ham.: capud] ignominose” (Hamburg, p. 20; Rudimentum, fol. 179v). Additionally, and perhaps more crucially, the Rudimentum text follows deletions and insertions marked on the Hamburg manuscript. For example, the words “vel in penitentia vel” crossed out in Hamburg (p. 58) are omitted from the Rudimentum text (196v), although they appear to be a part of Burchard’s original text. Similarly, an addendum to the text on the margin of the Hamburg manuscript “ut dicit Ieronimus” (p. 58) is also included in the Rudimentum (fol. 197r).
16. Campbell, The Earliest Printed Maps, 146.
17. Harvey, Medieval Maps of the Holy Land, 146–7.
18. “That these three maps, while related, are so different from each other…” Harvey, Medieval Maps of the Holy Land, 146–54.
19. For the Rudimentum map, see also Worm, “Mapping the History of Salvation for the ‘Mind’s Eyes’,” 317–330.
20. Gieraths OP, “Host, Johannes,” 653–4. Gieraths argues that while in Venice Host served mainly German pilgrims, but it is not clear what evidence there is for this claim. Host is unfortunately not mentioned in: Braunstein, Les Allemands à Venise.
21. “Ad. R. in Christo patrem Eberhardum de Cliuis: consummatissimum sacre theologie professorem, prouincie theuthonie fratrum ordinis predicatorii priorem prouincialem, optime meritum, frater Joannes Host de Romberch Kyrspensis eiusdem ordinis et prouincie. S.P.D.” (“To the most respected in Christ, father Eberhard of Kleve, best deserving, full professor of sacred theology, provincial prior of the German province of the friars of the order of preachers, [from] friar Johannes Host of Romberch of Kierspe of the same order and province [who] gives many greetings”), Veridica, fol. Aiir.
22. Von Wille, “Javelli, Giovanni Crisostomo”; Tavuzzi, “Chrysostomus Javelli OP,” 5–16.
23. Toffolo, “The Pilgrim, the City and the Book,” vol. 2, 131–53; Toffolo, “Encounters in Renaissance Venice,” 49–72.
24. Denke, Venedig als Station und Erlebnis auf den Reisen der Jerusalempilger, 48; Barbieri (ed.), Antichi Processionali per la Terra Santa e il Santo Sepolcro. For more evidence on the printing and circulation of pilgrimage-related texts in Venice, see Toffolo, “The Pilgrim, the City and the Book,” 135–45.
25. Bodmer, “Werner Steiners Pilgerführer,” 69–73; Henny, “Der Schweizer Jerusalem-Komplex,” 176–9; Toffolo, “The Pilgrim, the City and the Book,” 139–42.
26. “stilum huius reverendi patris simplici congruitate currentem servato quidem omnimode suo sensu paululum elevare constitui ne ex simplicitate sua lectio apud huius seculi sapientes vilis habeatur” (“I have decided to slightly raise this reverend father’s style, flowing with simple correctness, leaving his meaning completely unchanged, lest, because of simplicity, his reading would be held vile among the wise men of this era”), Veridica, fol. Aiiiir.
27. “in mille traduci exemplaria ad reformatissimum architypum curavi” (“I saw to it that a thousand exemplars would be transmitted according to the most corrected archetype”), Veridica, fol. Aiiv.
28. Grafton, Inky Fingers, 38.
29. Cf. Burchard, Descriptio, ed. Bartlett, 26: “quia textus dicit […] ut infra dicetur”; Veridica, fol. Fv–Fiir: “legimus enim in […] ut infra declarabitur.”
30. Cf. Burchard, Descriptio, ed. Bartlett, 52: “Et nota, quod ista quarta divisio …”; Veridica, fol. Giir: “Et adverte hanc quartam divisionem …”; Burchard, Descriptio, ed. Bartlett, 64: “Hic nota, quod in hac civitate Tyberiades terminatur regio …”; Veridica, fol. Giiiiv: “Scias charissime lector ad urbem Tyberiadem terminari regionem dictam …”
31. Cf. Burchard, Descriptio, ed. Bartlett, 110: “Et est civitas bene magna”; Veridica, fol. Iv: “est civitas evidenter magna.”
32. Cf. Burchard, Descriptio, ed. Bartlett, 14: “Accon autem ciuitas munita est muris […] et barbicanis fortissimis …”; Veridica, fol. Evv: “Achon civitas munitissima est parietibus […] aliisque electis defensoriis” (note the replacement of barbicanis).
33. Chiesa, “Medieval Latin Texts in the Age of Printing,” 578–9.
34. “Verum quia, ut credo, illius sui temporis consuetudine scripture sacra loca et dicta non rettulit, ideo ut vobis innotescat huius descriptionis fides et utilitas precipue in indagandis divinarum historiarum libris, loca et capita et dicta formaliter inserui” (“But because, according to the custom of his time, so I believe, he did not provide the sacred places and sayings of the scripture, in order that the faith of this description and its utility, especially in the study of the books of divine history, would become known to you, I have formally inserted the places and chapters and sayings”), Veridica, fol. Aiiiir.
35. Cf. Burchard, Descriptio, ed. Bartlett, 50; Veridica, fol. Gr.
36. Cf. Burchard, Descriptio, ed. Bartlett, 174; Veridica, fol. Liiir.
37. “Prefatum itaque opusculum in duas sectum partes per capitorum paragraphos distinxi, adiectis in margine litteris, longiores minutatim partiendo, quatenus tabulam absque annotatione factam (quare facilius nova fieri poterat) materiis applicarem et si laboriosum videretur,” Veridica, fol. Aiiir.
38. For example, looking at the Repertorium for the expression “Armeniorum sacerdotes” (Biiir), one is referred to “part two, cha. 2, par. 9 C,” and indeed, following this reference, one finds on fol. Miiir a passage, marked by ‘C,’ which discusses the Armenian clergy.
39. Regarding the indexes, see n. 12.
40. That Burchard was of German origin is stated by several manuscripts. See, for example, Berlin, Deutsche Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preussischer Kulturbesitz, MS Lat. qu. 466, fol. 36v: “incipit prologus libri descripcionis terre sancte editi a fratre Borchardo theotonico” (“[here] begins the prologue of the book of the description of the Holy Land written by the German friar Burchard.”)
41. “[…] facile donauit ceu ex patria proximo heredi” (“[…] easily presented as if to the closest heir from the homeland”), Veridica, fol. Aiir.
42. “Hosce tibi, qualescumque sint, moderator optime, nuncupo labores, quatenus pater communis alimanorum, filii alimani, per confratrem alimanum, alimanas excipias fruges” (“And I dedicate these labors, of whatever quality they may be, to you, the best of governors, so that a common father of the Germans, you would receive German crops of a German son, through a German fellow friar”), Veridica, fol. Aiiir.
43. “opusculum perbreue descriptionis Terre Sancte, a venerabili. P. fratre Borchardo nostrate ex sua peregrinatione studiosissime reportatum” (“a very short text of the description of the Holy Land reported most learnedly from his pilgrimage by the venerable father friar Burchard, our countryman”), Veridica, fol. Aiir; “non pomposo verborum fastu […] optima retexit sensa” (“he explained the best opinions not in a boastful pride of words …”), Veridica, fols. Aiir–Aiiv.
44. “quinque mensibus laboravi non parcens vigiliis aut estivis caloribus. Hoc in tempore divinos libros exactissime volui iterumque volui historiales precipue, et comperi qua fide et gravitate processerit. Hic nil leve aut imaginatione confictum describitur. Quod in suo nempe sensatissimo prohemio despondit penitus servavit” (“I toiled five months, not sparing [myself] from working through nights and summer heat. During that time I turned pages in the Holy Scripture in the most complete manner, and again turned pages specifically in the historical books. I understood with what faith and gravity he had proceeded. Nothing frivolous or made up by imagination is described here. He thoroughly followed that which he had promised in his indeed most intelligent prologue”), Veridica, fol. Aiiiir.
45. “evangelice predicationis concionatoribus ac sacrarum biblie historiarum studiosis quibus apprime conducet” (“to the preachers of evangelical sermons and to scholars of the sacred histories of the bible to whom specifically it will be of service”), Veridica, fol. Aiiv.
46. See n. 34.
47. “Egoque non segniter altiora donec ad magis utilia me destinandum censueris mittenda curabo. Videbis quippe estimo prope diem nonnulla Angelici doctoris ac divi Alberti et Ruberti anglici opera meis vigiliis et lucubrationibus castigatissima” (“And I will see to it, not sluggishly, that higher things are sent [to you] until you will see me fit to be assigned to more useful things. I think you will soon see some works of the Angelic doctor [that is, Thomas Aquinas], the divine Albert and Robert the Englishman, most carefully edited by my wakefullness and nocturnal studies”), Veridica, fol. Aiiir.
48. “Non his forsan grata qui tanta rerum verborumque involucris ethnicorum [sic] captivantur ut sui immemores inverecunda ausint fateri fronte non sue profesionis esse ubi preter aristotelem et averroym de conscientie consultatione seu ex sacro canone passus quispiam subobscurus in disceptationem revocatur” (“Not pleasant, perhaps, to these who are so enthralled by the covering of the things and words of the Ethica, that, forgetting themselves, with shameless countenance they dared confess that it does not belong to their profession where, aside from Aristotle and Averroes, some obscure passage about the consultation of conscience, or from the sacred canon, is recalled into debate”), Veridica, fols. Aiiv.
49. I have not encountered them elsewhere in the textual tradition of the Descriptio, but they were not, however, cross-checked against all of the extant manuscript witnesses, so this must be taken as a tentative argument.
50. “De Chana Galilee quattuor leucis contra meridiem fere, in uia, que de Sephoro Tiberiadem ducit, est uilla quedam, Ruma nomine, in qua Ionas propheta dicitur sepultus fuisse. Villa ista sita est,” Burchard, Descriptio, ed. Bartlett, 62–3 (Bartlett’s translation).
51. “Ex Chana Galilee tendens versus meridiem quatuor leucis deprehendi villam nomine Ruinam in via qua est transitus a Sephorom in Tyberiade. In Ruina credunt incole Ionam prophetam sepultum quiescere. Hoc tamen non constat ex libro Ione nec alio scripture loco. Villa hec sita est,” Veridica, fol. Giiiv.
52. This is not the only case in the Veridica in which this occurs. Here is an example: “Ex Arachas et Sinochi dimensis octo leucis veni in Anteradum per planiciem prescriptam” (“From ‘Arqa and Synochim, having passed eight leagues, I came to Tartus through the described plain”), Veridica, fol. Fiiv; “De Arachas et Synochim oppido usque in Anteradum sunt octo leuce per planitiem supradictam” (“From the towns of ‘Arqa and Synochim to Tartus it is 8 leagues through the plain just mentioned”, Bartlett’s translation), Burchard, Descriptio, ed. Bartlett, 28–9.
53. “Hoc ego legi in alcorano, qui est liber legis eorum,” Burchard, Descriptio, ed. Bartlett, 82–3 (Bartlett’s translation).
54. “Hec vidi et legi in Alcorano qui est liber false legis tradite a maledicto Mahometh,” Veridica, fol. Hv.
55. “Peractis per decennium hiis longis et certe laboriosis peregrinationibus […] incepi corpore gravescere tum propinquante senectute tum arduis laboribus perpessis. Quas ob causas statui gradum sistere, nec ultra proficisci. Erat enim mens etiam ultimos adire Indos,” Veridica (no page number).
56. Das, “India nel quattrocento,” 1–12.
57. Novus orbis regionum ac insularum veteribus incognitarum (Basel and Paris, 1532); for basic information on this edition and its reprints, see Burchard, Descriptio, ed. Bartlett, lxiii. Note that the pagination of the Paris and Basel editions is not identical.
58. For a detailed account of the various texts included in this volume, see Tilley, “Rabelais and Geographical Discovery,” 319–20.
59. Bietenholz, “Simon Grynaeus,” vol. 2, 142–6.
60. Oosterhoff, “The Fabrist Origins of Erasmian Science,” 6–7, 29–30.
61. Guenther, “Johann Huttich,” 220–1.
62. “Ioan. Hutichius vir doctus, et antiquitatis mire studiosus, Hervagio nostro excudendos dederit” (“Ioan. Huttich, a learned man, and extraordinarily devoted to antiquity, gave to our Hervagius to be printed”), Novus orbis (Basel and Paris), fol. α3r.
63. Tilley wrote that “the real compiler and editor” of this edition was Huttich, but provided no evidence for this. Tilley, “Rabelais and Geographical Discovery,” 319.
64. Horodowich, The Venetian Discovery of America, 21–41.
65. It is noteworthy that the last text included in this volume is devoted to Prussia. Tilley, “Rabelais and Geographical Discovery,” 320.
66. Johnson, The German Discovery of the World, 25, 45.
67. Shalev, Sacred Words and Worlds, 7.
68. McLean, The Cosmographia of Sebastian Münster, 9, 15, 32–3, 39, 43, 113, 165.
69. It is important in this context that Münster’s world map, along with his introduction, appear in the Novus orbis. McLean, The Cosmographia of Sebastian Münster, 163.
70. Burchard, Descriptio, ed. Bartlett, lxiv–lxvi. We will shortly return to this issue.
71. For example, as the modern toponym of Megiddo, Burchard provides the name Zubube which denoted in medieval times, and still denotes, a village not far from the city of Jenin. As this is not a toponym that was well known in the West, the extant manuscripts of the Descriptio provide a wide range of corruptions of this name. Notably, however, the 1532 edition and the Berlin manuscript provide close variants, Subimbre (Basel, 307; Paris, 268), and Subumbia/Subumbra (Berlin 464, fol. 91r). Another case supports this piece of evidence: discussing the distance between Tirzah and Tappuah, the 1532 edition says “A Thersa ad orientem, in via quae ducit ad Iordanem, est terra Taphue” (Basel, 309; Paris, 266). Berlin 464, fol. 92r has: “De thersa vi le. contra orientem in via que ducit ad iordanem est terra taphue”. Berlin 464 is the only representative of its family which has “que ducit” rather than “qua itur” (or a related corruption of this phrase).
72. “A Crack duae numerantur leucae (secundum aliud exemplar, duae diaetae) ad Areopolim” Orbis novus (Basel), 310–11 (or Paris, 270, which has Craclz for Crack and dietae for diaetae). For the identification of the sites, see Burchard, Descriptio, ed. Bartlett, p. 97, notes 375, 377.
73. Orbis novus (Basel), 297 (or Paris, 258).
74. Oosterhoff, “The Fabrist Origins of Erasmian Science,” 9.
75. This conflict can be seen as ultimately reflecting the perspectives of Strabo on the one hand and Ptolemy on the other. Small, “Warring Traditions,” 169–71.
76. McLean, The Cosmographia, 47.
77. This appears to be generally correct, but there are exceptions. Novus Orbis (Basel), 299, 326 (or Paris, 260, 284).
78. Burchard, Descriptio, ed. Bartlett, lxiv–lxv.
79. “Vidi ego in ecclesia ista miraculum gloriosum. Soldanus enim uidens ecclesie huius ornatum et tabulas et columpnas omnes preciosas ualde, precepit omnia deponi et portari in Babiloniam, uolens inde palatium suum hedifficare. Mira res! artificibus cum instrumentis accedentibus ipso adhuc Soldano astante cum multis aliis de sano et integro pariete, quem nec accus uidebatur posse penetrare, serpens mire magnitudinis exiuit primeque tabule, que occurrit, morsum dedit. Tabula per transuersum crepuit. Secundam adiit tertiamque et quartam et deinceps usque ad quadraginta, et omnibus similiter accidit. Omnibus stupentibus et ipso Soldano et continuo propositum reuocante serpens disparuit. Remansit igitur ecclesia et remanet usque hodie sicut prius; uestigia tamen corporis serpentis apparent usque hodie in singulis tabulis, quas transiuit, quasi combustio quadam igne facta. Et super omne mirabile uidetur, quomodo serpens ille sic procedere potuit per transuersum in pariete, qui erat planissimus et politissimus, sicut uitrum.” Burchard, Descriptio, ed. Bartlett, 156–9 (Bartlett’s translation).
80. “ut vix hodie inveniri possit locus sacer illo pulchrior, ut etiam Sultanus tentarit hinc asportare columnas et alia crusta marmorea quibus parietes nitent, ad decorandum palatium suum Babylonicum sed serpente subito apparente, et terrorem incutiente, desistere coactus est a concepto proposito,” Orbis novus, Basel, 318–19 (or Paris, 277).
81. It is noteworthy that this scene is described as a miracle witnessed by Burchard in both of the manuscripts which seem to provide the text closest to the long version’s archetype: London, British Library, Add. 18929, fols. 32r–v; Zwickau, Ratsschulbibliothek, MS I XII 5, fol. 133r.
82. Oosterhoff, “The Fabrist Origins of Erasmian Science,” 3:6.
83. Rubin, “The Manuscript Tradition,” 282.
84. Burchard, Descriptio, ed. Bartlett, lxv.
85. Hamburg, Universitätsbibliothek MS Cod. Petri 30b; Klagenfurt, Archiv der Diözese Gurk, MS Maria Saal 15; Melk, Benediktinerstift, Cod. 46 (959, H 17).
86. Chiesa, “Medieval Latin Texts in the Age of Printing,” 582.
87. Clearly, medieval scribes copying the Descriptio did introduce various innovations into the text, but the great majority of these were relatively minor and often done unwittingly. That only a few of the scribes functioned as editors in any meaningful way is supported by the fact that the tradition of the work includes only six redactions present in over 100 manuscripts. Furthermore, the manuscripts providing each of the redactions transmit very similar texts. See Rubin, “The Manuscript Tradition.”
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Jonathan Rubin
Jonathan Rubin teaches in the Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at Bar Ilan University. His research focuses on the cultural history of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem and on medieval Latin travel accounts. A research group he currently leads is constructing a database documenting all of the manuscript witnesses of the Latin accounts of the Holy Land composed during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.