Wright, Thomas, ed., Early Travels in Palestine (New York: Ktav Publishing House, Inc., 1848 [rpt. 1968]).

Text name(s): The Travels of Bishop Arculf; The Travels of Willibald; The Voyage of Bernard the Wise; The Travels of Sæwulf; The Saga of Sigurd the Crusader; The Travels of Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela; The Book of Sir John Mandeville; The Travels of Bertrandon de la Brocquière; The Journey of Henry Maundrell, from Aleppo to Jerusalem

Number of pages of primary source text: 512

Medieval Author(s): Adamnan Benjamin of Tudela Bertrandon de la Brocquière Mandeville, John Saewulf William of Tyre

Dates: 700 - 1697

Archival Reference:

Original Language(s): French - Old French; Hebrew; Latin;

Translation: English translation.

Translation Comments:

Geopolitical Region(s): Byzantium; Egypt; Middle East; Persia;

County/Region:

Apparatus: Index

Comments:

The texts contained in this volume are: The Travels of Bishop Arculf, in the Holy Land, towards AD 700; The Travels of Willibald, AD 721-727; The Voyage of Bernard the Wise, AD 867; The Travels of Saewulf, AD 1102 and 1103; The Saga of Sigurd the Crusader, AD 1107-1111; The Travels of Rabbi Benjamin, of Tudela, AD 1160-1173; The Book of Sir John Maundeville, AD 1322-1356; The Travels of Bertrandon de la Brocquiere, AD 1432 and 1433; and The Journey of Henry Maundrell, from Aleppo to Jerusalem, AD 1697. Wright does not include any information at the beginning of each text, and does not specify what language each text was originally written in, except for Benjamin of Tudela’s Hebrew original. A Plan of Jerusalem is included. Arculf was a French bishop who visited the Holy Land late in the seventh century; his story was recorded by a British monk named Adamnan at the monastery-island of Iona. Willibald was an Anglo-Saxon who traveled with his brother Wunibald and sister Walpurgis, who was later sainted, to Rome, and Willibald later traveled to Jerusalem. He became bishop of Eichstadt in Germany in 740/1, and a nun in Heidenheim recorded his account. Bernardus Sapiens (Bernard the Wise) was a monk from Brittany in France, possibly from the monastery of Mont St. Michel. He left France around 867 and traveled through Egypt to reach Jerusalem. In 1071 the Seldjouk (Seljuk) Turks took Jerusalem from the Muslims and pilgrims were heavily taxed and abused. The Muslims regained control in 1096, and in 1099 the First Crusade won Jerusalem. An Anglo-Saxon named Sæwulf was part of the crusade, and his account records the route of the Crusaders. Sigurd the Crusader, a Scandinavian prince, was noted by William of Tyre as being present at the capture of Beirut in 1110, and was, according to Wright, a pirate who raided all along the way from the north to the Middle East. Benjamin of Tudela was a Spanish rabbi; his description was in Hebrew, and he traveled farther than did many pilgrims, who stayed on established routes. Benjamin might have been a merchant, which would explain his indirect routes. Sir John Ma(u)ndeville, unlike many of the above authors, wrote of places that he had not been but had merely heard of. His 1356 account quickly became popular because of its tales of marvels and oddities in the East. Bertrandon de la Brocquière was a knight of Burgundy, and he traveled to Jerusalem in 1432 to fulfill a vow. After he completed his pilgrimage, he returned to France overland, observing the Turks, who were threatening Constantinople, which they took in 1453. Finally, Henry Maundrell was a fellow at Exeter College in Oxford before he was appointed chaplain to a factory in Aleppo.

Introduction Summary:

The introduction gives the history of European travel to and narratives of the Holy Land, beginning with an unknown man known as the Bordeaux Pilgrim in 333. Because no information about the authors is given in the text, the introduction supplies biographical context about each traveler.

Cataloger: RLL