Peregrinatio in terram sanctam
The " peregrinatio in terram sanctam " ( German pilgrimage to the holy land ) is a travel report by the German cleric Bernhard von Breidenbach . The book is about his pilgrimage from Venice to Jerusalem and his onward journey to Egypt . Breidenbach participated in the pilgrimage under the leadership of Hereditary Prince Johann zu Solms in April 1483 and returned to Venice in January 1484. The pilgrimage report is considered a central work of the incunable period . The text was written between 1484 and 1486.
Editions and translations
The peregrinatio was one of the first travel reports to be printed and illustrated with numerous large-format and sometimes multi-page woodcuts . The book was in great demand, with numerous translations and new editions published. First, the peregrinatio was printed in Latin on February 11, 1486 in Mainz. The first two early New High German editions were published on June 21 of the same year and April 22, 1488. A Dutch translation appeared on May 24, 1488, followed by a French translation on November 28, 1488. In 1498 the peregrinatio was also translated into Spanish and in 1610 into Polish. Not only the individual editions, but also the individual copies of the same edition can differ considerably from one another in individual cases. Illustrations are missing in some copies.
Content and structure of the travel report
Bernhard von Breidenbach begins his report with a letter of dedication to the Elector of Mainz and Archbishop Berthold von Henneberg as well as a summary. This is followed by a declaration of intent, on the one hand for his pilgrimage and on the other hand for the publication of his report. This is followed by the narrative of the actual pilgrimage. It begins with the journey from Oppenheim to Venice. Breidenbach informs about the errands to be done in Venice and preparations for the trip and describes the negotiation of a contract for the crossing with the ship's patron. The story continues with the daily stages of the cruise to Jaffa . This is followed by a tour of the holy places, which are often identified in the report with quotations from the Bible . Breidenbach also mentions the indulgences granted at the sites visited. After the precise description of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher , he continues with the chapter “de moribus, ritibus et erroribus”, ie the “customs, habits and errors”, referring to the “errors” of both Muslims and heretical Christians . The second main part of the peregrinatio deals with the journey from Jerusalem via Mount Sinai to Egypt and finally with the return journey from Alexandria to Venice. In both main parts, Breidenbach repeatedly incorporates geographical and ethnographic information and tells of exotic animals and experiences of his group of pilgrims. Overall, however, he only gives very sporadic individual information. His own actions are described only in a few places, which is common in a late medieval pilgrimage report. In the appendix there are - depending on the edition - various word lists, distances and stories about the Turks . A colophon concludes the work.
Breidenbach's sources
Breidenbach draws its information from various sources . There are designated quotations, paraphrases, but also verbatim adoptions. His sources include ancient writings, contemporary authors and encyclopedias, as well as travel reports by other pilgrims to Jerusalem. Breidenbach's publisher Martin Roth has revised the work.
Illustrations by Erhard Reuwich in the travelogue
In Breidenbach's travel group was also the painter Erhard Reuwich , who worked in Mainz in the vicinity of the court and cathedral chapter and whose trip Breidenbach financed. Reuwich illustrated the book with various woodcuts, which makes the peregrinatio an extraordinary document. For the first time, a pilgrimage report was supplemented with woodcuts by an artist who was himself in the Holy Land. Reuwich was probably able to work on his own sketches, but also on material from Italian workshops, e.g. B. by Jacopo Bellini and Gentile Bellini fall back and made woodcuts of cityscapes, exotic animals and everyday scenes in the Holy Land. The woodcuts partly consist of multi-sided, foldable panels.
expenditure
- First edition : Peregrinatio in terram sanctam , Mainz 1486 ( digitized version )
- Andreas Klußmann (Ed.): Bernhard von Breydenbach. Peregrinatio in terram sanctam. First German edition by Peter Schöffer, Mainz 1486. Facsimile, Saarbrücken 2008, ISBN 978-3-937246-00-0 .
- Isolde Mozer (Ed.): Bernhard von Breydenbach: Peregrinatio in terram sanctam. A pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Early New High German Text and Translation , Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-11-020951-8 .
literature
- Elizabeth Ross: Picturing Experience in the Early Printed Book. Breydenbach's Peregrinatio from Venice to Jerusalem. University Park, Pennsylvania State University Press 2014.
- Frederike Timm: Bernhard von Breidenbach's Palestine pilgrimage report and Erhard Reuwich's woodcuts. The Peregrinatio in terram sanctam (1486) as a propaganda instrument in the cloak of learned pilgrimage , Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 978-3-7762-0506-0 .
- Thomas Glöss: Peregrinatio in terram sanctam: Bernhard von Breydenbach's pilgrimage in the context of palaeotypical and epigraphic developments. In: Leipziger Jahrbuch zur Buchgeschichte 15 (2006), pp. 11–31.
- Andreas Klußmann: In God's name we drive. The late medieval pilgrimage reports by Felix Fabri, Bernhard von Breydenbach and Konrad Grünemberg in comparison , Saarbrücken 2012, ISBN 978-3-86223-076-1 .
- Heinrich Rohrbacher: Bernhard von Breydenbach and his work "Peregrinatio in terram sanctam" (1486) , Stuttgart 1989.
- J. Meyers: La Peregrinatio in terram sanctam de Bernhard von Breidenbach (1486) comme instrument de propagande. A propos d'un ouvrage récent. In: Le Moyen Âge 115 (2009), pp. 365–374.
- Anne Simon: The non-Catholic “Other” in Bernhard von Breidenbach's Die heyligen reyssen towards Jherusalem. In: William A. Kelly / Jürgen Beyer (eds.): The German book in Wolfenbüttel and abroad. Studies presented to Ulrich Kopp in his retirement (Studies in reading and book culture, Vol. 1), Tartu 2014, ISBN 978-9949-32-494-1 , pp. 301–326.
- Klaus Niehr: "when I explored and seen it myself". Perception and representation of the foreign in Bernhard von Breydenbach's Peregrinationes in Terram Sanctam and other pilgrimage reports of the late Middle Ages. In: Gutenberg-Jahrbuch 2001, pp. 269-300.
Web links
- Peregrinatio in terram sanctam in the complete catalog of incumbents (GW number GW05075)
Individual evidence
- ^ Repertory "Historical Sources of the German Middle Ages": Bernhardus de Breydenbach, Peregrinatio in terram sanctam .
- ↑ Discussed in detail in Timm 2006.