Picturing Experience in the Early Printed Book

Elizabeth Ross is Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Florida.

• ContentsChapter 1—Introduction: The Pilgrims and their Project Bernhard von Breydenbach and his PilgrimageThe Role of Erhard Reuwich Chapter 2—The Authority of the Artist-Author’s ViewThe Censorship Edict of 1485Breydenbach’s Self-Presentation as an AuthorThe Artist as Eye-WitnessThese Animals are Truly Depicted as We Saw ThemGart der Gesundheit (Garden of Health)The Artist-Author’s View in Petrarch and Van EyckAppendixChapter 3—Mediterranean Encounters: Lady Venice, Holy Land Heretics, and CrusadeCrusade in the 1480s and the Turks TitheMainz Printing and the Selling of CrusadeThe Peregrinatio’s Journey between Venice and HeresyOther Heretics of the Holy LandVenice Influenced, Venice as InfluenceWhat They Took from Peter Ugelheimer and What They Left BehindChapter 4—The Map of the Holy Land: Art-Making as CartographyMappae MundiThe Burchard Map of the Holy LandPortolan ChartsThe Pilgrims’ Itinerary and Itineraries of Other TravelersNetherlandish Pictorial SpaceChapter 5—The View of Jerusalem: Perspectives on a Holy CityThe Centripetal View from Mamluk MonumentsThe Franciscan Indulgenced ViewPutting Islam at the Forefront of a Christian ViewThe Meaning of al-Haram al-Sharif for the Pilgrimage of 1483–84Coda: The View from the Jewish QuarterBibliographyIndex

“Bernhard von Breydenbach’s account of his pilgrimage from Venice to the Holy Land and Egypt revolutionized book publishing when it appeared in 1486. Erhard Reuwich’s accompanying woodcuts include highly detailed, multiblock foldout plates. Thanks to Elizabeth Ross’s beautifully written text, I feel like an armchair traveler peering over the artist’s shoulder as he documents the exotic people, cities, and creatures his party encountered. Part detective, part ethnographer, and always a sensitive art historian, Ross deftly explores the book’s creation, reception, and claims of authority and truthfulness. This is the best study in any language of the Peregrinatio in terram sanctam.”—Jeffrey Chipps Smith, University of Texas at Austin