Picturing experience in the early printed book : Breydenbach's "Peregrinatio" from Venice to Jerusalem

Bernhard von Breydenbach’s __Peregrinatio in terram sanctam__ (Journey to the Holy Land), first published in 1486, is one of the seminal books of early printing and is especially renowned for the originality of its woodcuts. In __Picturing Experience in the Early Printed Book__, Elizabeth Ross considers the __Peregrinatio__ from a variety of perspectives to explain its value for the cultural history of the period. Breydenbach, a high-ranking cleric in Mainz, recruited the painter Erhard Reuwich of Utrecht for a religious and artistic adventure in a political hot spot—a pilgrimage to research the peoples, places, plants, and animals of the Levant. The book they published after their return ambitiously engaged with the potential of the new print medium to give an account of their experience. The __Peregrinatio__ also aspired to rouse readers to a new crusade against Islam by depicting a contest in the Mediterranean between the Christian bastion of the city of Venice and the region’s Muslim empires. This crusading rhetoric fit neatly with the state of the printing industry in Mainz, which largely subsisted as a tool for bishops’ consolidation of authority, including selling the pope’s plans to combat the Ottoman Empire. Taking an artist on such an enterprise was unprecedented. Reuwich set a new benchmark for technical achievement with his woodcuts, notably a panorama of Venice that folds out to 1.62 meters in length and a foldout map that stretches from Damascus to Sudan around the first topographically accurate view of Jerusalem. The conception and execution of the __Peregrinatio__ show how and why early printed books constructed new means of visual representation from existing ones—and how the form of a printed book emerged out of the interaction of eyewitness experience and medieval scholarship, real travel and spiritual pilgrimage, curiosity and fixed belief, texts and images.

Bernhard von Breydenbach’s Peregrinatio in terram sanctam (Journey to the Holy Land), first published in 1486, is one of the seminal books of early printing and is especially renowned for the originality of its woodcuts. In Picturing Experience in the Early Printed Book, Elizabeth Ross considers the Peregrinatio from a variety of perspectives to explain its value for the cultural history of the period. Breydenbach, a high-ranking cleric in Mainz, recruited the painter Erhard Reuwich of Utrecht for a religious and artistic adventure in a political hot spot—a pilgrimage to research the peoples, places, plants, and animals of the Levant. The book they published after their return ambitiously engaged with the potential of the new print medium to give an account of their experience.

The Peregrinatio also aspired to rouse readers to a new crusade against Islam by depicting a contest in the Mediterranean between the Christian bastion of the city of Venice and the region’s Muslim empires. This crusading rhetoric fit neatly with the state of the printing industry in Mainz, which largely subsisted as a tool for bishops’ consolidation of authority, including selling the pope’s plans to combat the Ottoman Empire.

Taking an artist on such an enterprise was unprecedented. Reuwich set a new benchmark for technical achievement with his woodcuts, notably a panorama of Venice that folds out to 1.62 meters in length and a foldout map that stretches from Damascus to Sudan around the first topographically accurate view of Jerusalem. The conception and execution of the Peregrinatio show how and why early printed books constructed new means of visual representation from existing ones—and how the form of a printed book emerged out of the interaction of eyewitness experience and medieval scholarship, real travel and spiritual pilgrimage, curiosity and fixed belief, texts and images.

Bernhard von Breydenbach's Peregrinatio in terramsanctam (Journey to the Holy Land), first published in 1486,is one of the seminal books of early printing and is especiallyrenowned for the originality of its woodcuts. In PicturingExperience in the Early Printed Book, Elizabeth Ross considersthe Peregrinatio from a variety of perspectives to explainits value for the cultural history of the period. Breydenbach, ahigh-ranking cleric in Mainz, recruited the painter Erhard Reuwichof Utrecht for a religious and artistic adventure in a politicalhot spot-a pilgrimage to research the peoples, places, plants, andanimals of the Levant. The book they published after their returnambitiously engaged with the potential of the new print medium togive an account of their experience.

The Peregrinatio also aspired to rouse readers to a newcrusade against Islam by depicting a contest in the Mediterraneanbetween the Christian bastion of the city of Venice and theregion's Muslim empires. This crusading rhetoric fit neatly withthe state of the printing industry in Mainz, which largelysubsisted as a tool for bishops' consolidation of authority,including selling the pope's plans to combat the OttomanEmpire.

Taking an artist on such an enterprise was unprecedented.Reuwich set a new benchmark for technical achievement with hiswoodcuts, notably a panorama of Venice that folds out to 1.62meters in length and a foldout map that stretches from Damascus toSudan around the first topographically accurate view of Jerusalem.The conception and execution of the Peregrinatio show howand why early printed books constructed new means of visualrepresentation from existing ones-and how the form of a printedbook emerged out of the interaction of eyewitness experience andmedieval scholarship, real travel and spiritual pilgrimage,curiosity and fixed belief, texts and images.

"Examines the creation in 1483 of the first illustrated travelogue, Peregrinatio in terram sanctam (Journey to the Holy Land), by Bernhard von Breydenbach and his artist, Erhard Reuwich of Utrecht. Focuses on the early use of the print medium to influence public opinion" ... Provided by publisher Introduction : the pilgrims and their project The authority of the artist-author's view Mediterranean encounters : Lady Venice, Holy Land heretics, and crusade The map of the Holy Land : artist as cartographer The view of Jerusalem : perspectives on a holy city.