Seeing through text: the visualization of Holy Land architecture in Niccolò da Poggibonsi's Libro d'oltramare , 14th–15th centuries
2009; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 25; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/02666280902778082
ISSN1943-2178
Autores Tópico(s)Historical and Linguistic Studies
ResumoAbstract ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my advisors at the Institute of Fine Arts, Marvin Trachtenberg and Finbarr Barry Flood, for their help in formulating and revising this essay. I would also like to thank Jonathan Alexander who alerted me to the existence of an anonymous Viaggio at the Spencer Collection of the New York Public Library (Spencer 62). This essay will be part of my forthcoming dissertation, ‘Italian copies of Holy Land architecture: the illustrated versions of Niccolò da Poggibonsi's Libro d'Oltramare’. Notes 1 – See Sabino De Sandoli, Itinera hierosolymitana crucesignatorum: saec. XII–XIII: textus latini cum versione italica ( Jerusalem: Studium Biblicum Franciscanum, 1978), 4 vols. 2 – ‘… multa que non vidimus scimus, multa que vidimus ignoramus’. Francesco Petrarca, Itinerario in Terra Santa (1358), a cura di Francesco Lo Monaco (Bergamo: Lubrina, 1990), p. 29. 3 – The text of Niccolò da Poggibonsi's Libro d'oltramare (Book of Overseas) has been well known to scholars of pilgrimage literature. The first modern publication drawing from the surviving mss of the Libro was a partial edition of 1878: Damasco e le sue adiacenze, nel secolo XIV, dal viaggio in Terra Santa di Niccolò da Poggibonsi non mai fin qui stampato. (Imola: 1878). On page 15, the ms sources are cited: ‘Dai codd. Mss. Ricc. 2037: Magl. IV, 119: Palat. E, 5, 9, 1: Panc., 106’. They are all unillustrated versions in Florence. Before this, two other anonymous copies of the Libro d'oltramare had been published in 1867 and 1872 without reference to an author. Their sources were anonymous, unillustrated ms copies, one of which dates to 1395. Reinhold Rohricht compiled the first comprehensive list of all known mss of the Libro d'oltramare: Bibliotheca geographica Palaestinae: chronologisches Verzeichniss der auf die Geographie des Heiligen Landes bezuglichen Literatur von 333 bis 1878 und Versuch einer Cartographie (Berlin: Gesellschaft fur Erdkunde, 1890), pp. 158–9. 4 – My translation from the Italian, cited by Girolamo Golubovich, Biblioteca bio-bibliografica della Terra Santa e dell'Oriente francescano, Dal 1346 al 1400 (Rome: Quaracchi, Collegio di S. Bonaventura, 1921), p. 4. Niccolò refers to these tablets later in the book after describing the monastery of Saint Catherine: ‘I have described in short, as best I could, the parts of the monastery; but for my words I beg excuse, for things cannot be briefly described, and this, as other places, can give some spiritual joy; and therefore have I labored hard in writing this. And that you may the better understand, I shall do it in detail, exactly as they are; for I thought within myself and in my soul decided not to depart from the place until I had seen all, as you shall find written. And not to fail, from day to day I wrote upon a pair of gypsum tablets which I carried by my side’. Niccolò da Poggibonsi, A voyage beyond the seas (1346–1350), trans. T Bellorini and Eugene Hoade (Jerusalem: Franciscan Press, 1945), p. 105. 5 – Bellorini and Hoade, p. xxvii. 6 – Golubovich, Biblioteca bio-bibliografica della Terra Santa e dell'oriente francescano. 7 – Bellorini and Hoade, p. xxvii. 8 – Golubovich recognized that the author of the Viazo was not Noe Bianco but Niccolò da Poggibonsi, who was ‘Fra Noe’. Golubovich thought that the name Noe was perhaps an abbreviation taken from the acrostic attributing the book to ‘Nicol(a)o’ (Golubovich 1). The acrostic reads as follows: ‘Frate Nicolao: Frate Nicola di Corbico da Pocibonici del contado di Fiorenzca de la provincia di Toscana’ (Brother Nicolao, Brother Nicola di Corbico from Pocibonici [Poggibonsi] of the region of Fiorenzca [Florence] of the province of Toscana [Tuscany]). Niccolò explains why he thought it was necessary to include this acrostic: ‘But that no man attribute to himself the bodily fatigue which was mine, or the labor which I had for the said book, or that other claim it save myself, Friar Niccolò; he who would find my name, and the name of my father Corbizo and whence I was, should read the first embellished letter of each chapter beginning with this one and continuing letter by letter, and he will find all in order, as I have said’ (Bellorini and Hoade, pp. 11–12). 9 – Armando Petrucci and Franca Petrucci, eds, Viazo da Venesia al sancto Iherusalem (Rome: Edizioni dell'Elefante, 1972). For a discussion of Piero Ciza and the woodcuts of the Viazo, which are described as ‘curious’, see Victor Essling, Bibliographie des livres à figures vénitiens de la fin du XVe siècle et du commencement du XVIe, 1469–1525 (Paris: Techener, 1892), p. xvi and pp. 404–5. In this book, Essling cites Joanne Cola (the author of the Latin dedicatory letter) as the author of the Viazo, while in later works he cites the Franciscan Fra Noe as the author. See Victor Essling and Charles Gérard, Études sur l'art de la gravure sur bois à Venise. Les livres à figures vénitiens de la fin du xv siècle et du commencement du xvi (Florence: L.S. Olschki, 1907), vol. 1, part 2, pp. 352–7. 10 – C. D. Cossar, The German translation of Niccolò da Poggibonsi's Libro d'oltramare (Goppingen: Kummerle, 1985). 11 – II. IV. 101 was bought by S. A. R. Pietro Leopoldo Gran Duca di Toscana after the death of Alessandro Strozzi and passed to the Pubblica Libreria Magliabechiano in 1789 (Magl. Cl. XIII, num. 66). In the handwritten catalogue of the Libreria Strozziana the ms is dated to the fourteenth century, referred to as ‘Poggibonsi Fra Niccolò Viaggio da Gerusalemme con disegni fatto nel 1345’ (Poggibonsi Brother Niccolò Voyage from Jerusalem with drawings made in 1345). From the facsimile of the handwritten catalogue ‘Catalogo dei codici della libreria Strozziana comprati dopo la morte di Alessandro Strozzi da S. A. R. Pietro Leopoldo Gran Duca di Toscana, e passati alla Pubblica Libreria Magliabechiano … compilato 1789’: Strozziana classi I–XX, Cat 45: Magl. Cl. XIII num. 66: cod. XVI da Poggibonsi Fra Niccolò Viaggio da Gerusalemme con disegni fatto nel 1345; codex in fol. saec. XIV’. The ms is also listed in Giuseppe Mazzatinti, Inventari dei manoscritti delle biblioteche d'Italia (Florence: 1890–1891). ‘Magl. Cl. XIII num. 66; Cart., in fol. sec. XV, f. 54. Leg. in assi e mezza pelle — Provenienza: Strozzi, num. 317 dei mss. in fol’. 12 – Alberto Bacchia della Lega had published the first complete version of the text of Niccolò da Poggibonsi's Libro in 1881. He cited 10 Florentine mss as the basis of his edition: four Magliabechiani and three Palatini in the Biblioteca Nazionale, and three Riccardiani in the Biblioteca Riccardiana. II. IV. 101 and Panc. 78 and 79 are in fact included in this list of 10 mss. Bacchi della Lega curiously made no mention of the illustrations which he must have seen. This omission accounts for why scholars have assumed for so long that all of the mss cited by Bacchi della Lega are unillustrated. ‘Codici Magliabechiani: (1) Classe XXXVIII no 47, cart., in. fol, del secolo XV. Con alcune carte rifatte più modernamente, e mancante in fine; (2) Palchetto VIII, no 3 cart., in 8o, del secolo XV. É mancante in principio; (3) Palchetto IV, no II. IV. 101, cart., in fol. del secolo XV; (4) Palchetto IV, no 119, cart., in fol., del secolo XV. Mancante di alcuni de’ passi latini, e di parecchie rubriche, ma spesso con buone varianti. Codici Palatini: (1) E. 5, 9, 7, cart., in 8o, del secolo XV; (2) No 54, già Panciatichi, cart., in fol., del secolo XV. Mancante a mezzo; (3) No 106, già Panciatichi, cart., in fol., del secolo XV. Mancante pure a mezzo. Codici Riccardiani: (1) No 2819, cart., in fol., del secolo XVI. (2) No 2037, cart., in 8o, del secolo XV. Mancante in fine, forse di sole due carte, che poca parte del testo tolgono; (3) No 1279, cart., in fol. del secolo XV. É senza confronto, a nostro avviso, il migliore di tutti’. Bacchi della Lega, xi. 13 – More recently, John Lowden at the British Library has estimated the date of Egerton 1900 to be 1467. The British Library Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts can be found online (http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/TourKnownF.asp), where Egerton 1900 is discussed by Lowden as one of the ‘Treasures known and unknown in the British Library’. Without being aware of the illustrated Italian mss, Lowden argued that the drawings of Egerton 1900 could not have been the basis of the woodcut illustrations of the 1500 Viazo, concluding ‘that the Italian version with woodcuts printed at Bologna in 1500 was based on a lost model’. 14 – My translation from the Italian (Petrucci 3). 15 – Rohricht lists the known editors and places of publication of the editions under the name of the author of the Latin dedicatory letter, Joanne (Giovanni) Cola. The following is an abbreviated listing of the editions as cited by Rohricht, with the place of publication, publisher, and date. Bologna, Justiniano da Rubiera: 1500; Venice Nicolo Zopitio: 1518; Venice, Tacuino da Trino: 1520; Venice, Niccolò detto Zoppino et Vincentio Compagno: 1521, 1524; Venice, Zoppino: 1531, 1536; Venice, N. di Aristotele detto Zoppino: 1533, 1537, 1538; Venice, Venturini Roffinello: 1546, 1555, 1558; Venice, Bartholomaeo di Valenti: c. 1587; Venice, F. de Leno: 1564; Venice: gli eredi di Luigi Valvassori e G. D. Micheli: 1583, 1587, c. 1590; Verona: 1592; Venice, Dan. Zanetti: 1598; Venice, Domenico Imberti: 1604, 1605, c. 1619; Venice: gli heredi di Domenico Farri, 1607; Venice, S. Giuliano in calle de Pignolli: 1654, 1673; Bassano: 1675, c. 1728; ‘The same work appears under the name of Noe Bianco’: Lucca, Salv. e Giandom. Maresc.: without year; Venice, Michel Miloco: 1560 (?); Venice: 1570, 1575; Lucca: 1600; Venice, Domenico Imberti: 1610, 1638, c. 1648; Venice: 1615, c. 1619; Milan: 1676; Venice, Ben. Miloco: 1676; Venice: 1684; Bassano: 1685, c. 1689; Bologna: 1690; Bassano, G. A. Remondini: 1728, c. 1781; Torino: 1769; Koln: 1879 (?). Rohricht, pp. 158–9. 16 – When the Viazo was published in 1500 by Iustiniano da Rubiera in Bologna, there was only reference to the artist Piero Ciza in the ornamentation of the frontispiece, and in the final dedicatory letter (written in Latin by Giovanni di Cola) reference to the Prince Pio di Carpi as the patron. The sixteenth-century editions continued to be published anonymously, while the 1600 Treviso edition is the first known version to include the author name ‘Fra Noe’. Viaggio da Venezia al Sancto Sepolcro et al Monte Sinai … (Treviso: Antonio Paluello, 1600). Since then, many have speculated that a sixteenth-century pilgrim, Noe Bianco or Bianchi — a Servite who traveled to the Holy Land in 1527 — had been the original author of the book. The real Noe Bianco's account of the Holy Land was printed in 1566: Noe Bianco, Viaggio del reve r.p.f. Noe Bianco vinitiano della congregation de’ servi, fatto in Terra Santa, & descritto per beneficio de’ pellegrini, & de chi desidera hauere intera cognition de quei santi luogi … (Venice: Presso Giorgio de’ Caualli, a instantia di Francesco Portinari da Trino, 1566). In the dedicatory letter, addressed to Giulio Contarini, the author reports that he executed his voyage in 1527. Rohricht cites several editions of this book, Venice: 1566, 1570, 1585, 1638, 1684; Bassano: 1638, 1697, c. 1742 (181). In 1829 Marcellino da Civezza rejected the attribution of the Viazo to Noe Bianco, and in 1867 Titus Tobler re-affirmed that the printed but unillustrated guidebook of Noe Bianco bore no resemblance to the Viazo. Titus Tobler, Bibliographica geographica Palestinae. Zunachst kritische uebersicht gedruckter und ungedruckter beschreibungen der reisen ins Heilige Land (Leipzig: S. Hirzel, 1867). Charles Brunet made reference to the confusion of Noe Bianco's Viaggio with the earlier anonymous Holy Land guidebooks in his 1860–1865 catalogue of books. See Charles Brunet Manuel du libraire et de l'amateur de livres: contenant 1o, un nouveau dictionnaire bibliographique … 2o, Une table en forme de catalogue raisonne … (Paris: Firmin Didot freres, fils et Cie., 1860–1865), Tome 6 1084. 17 – For the most recent example of this misattribution, see a 2007 publication of an undated edition of the Viaggio da Venetia where the author is said to be the Servite Noe Bianco. Noe Bianco, Viaggio da Venetia al S. Sepolcro ed al monte Sinai … prefazione di Sante Rossetto; introduzione e note storiche di Antonio Bozzetto (Salgareda: Sismondi, 2007). 18 – Karl Kup, The Christmas Story in Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts from the Spencer Collection (New York: The New York Public Library, 1969). 19 – These two mss in the Biblioteca Nazionale of Florence are also referred to as Palatino 106 and Palatino 54 in some catalogues. See Luigi Gentile, I codici palatini (Rome: Preso i principali librai, 1889). 20 – Ministero della pubblica istruzione. Indici e cataloghi. VII. I codici panciatichiani della biblioteca nazionale centrale di Firenze (Roma: Presso i Principali Librai, 1887), vol. I. Fasc. 1, pp. 132–4. Panc. 78: ‘Cartac. sec. XV … Varia il numero delle righe nelle pagine che hanno intercalate nel testo figure rozzamente disegnate e colorite; in quelle di solo testo le linee di scrittura sono da 32. Le iniziali sono in rosso, e nelle prime 14 carte hanno anche dei piccoli fregi a penna. Le c. 17t e 18 sono in parte inquinate da una grande macchia d'inchiostro. Un foglio membran. ed uno cartac. di guardia in principio, ed uno membran. in fine. Al recto della prima guardia anter. sono frammenti di atti del 1435, riguardanti un Simone (forse il possessore del libro), e rogati dal not. Giovanni del Mosca di Bologna, al tergo alcune sentenze latine scritte spropositatamento. Al recto della seconda guardia anter. si legge: “Questo libro e di me simone di pagolo merciaio chopialo duno libro mi fue prestato da maestro antonio di giovanni chalzaiolo. a di 27 di luglio 1453 lo riauemo dal chartolaio legatto”; e al tergo: “questo libro e di pagolo del pagone fatto chopiare a di 20 di maggio 1453 daloriginale proprio de lo Inponitore chalnome sia de latissimo Idio edi messer S. sebastiano e di tuta la celestiale chorte del Paradiso e chamerollo elibro del pasaggio”. Nel recto della guardia poster. é il frammento di una collazione di beneficio fatta nel 1435 dal Card. di S. Angelo ad un Niccolò. — Legat. in assi e pelle’ (132). The cataloguers also note that Bacchi della Lega had made a mistake when he cited the ms as missing in the middle — it is actually missing at the end. This copy ends at the first terzo of chap. CCI (133). After the proemio, the book begins: ‘Al nome di dio et della sua sanctissima madre et del beato nostro padre sancto francescho e di sancta katerina e di sancta barbera e di tucti i suoi santi e sante che ccidoni sua gratia, sicchio possa dire per ordine e contare le sante luogora doltramare sanza fallimento come io le visitai et per vedere tucte le cose io ci spesi di tempo più di quatro anni… . Fra il mese di marzo e piu di negli anni del nostro signore MCCCXLV. Io mi parti da poggibonizi et passai per firenze et per bologna et poy tenni per canale dacqua infino a ferrara’. Panc. 79: ‘Cartac., Sec. XV… . Presentemente di carte 90, poiché essendo acefalo e mancante nel mezzo, furono aggiunti 19 fogli bianchi in principio e 20 tra la c. 49 e la 70. La numeraz. é moderna. Il numore delle righe varia in ciascuna pagina, essendo inseriti nel testo disegni a penna ed acquarellati. Le iniziali sono in rosso o in azzurro. A c. 9 si legge: “Explicit liber sanctuarius de ultramare editus et ordinatus cum magno labore a fratre niccholao de poggibonizi. Et transcriptus per presbiterum Johannem magistri bartholomei iohannis pacis de colonnensibus cappellanum sancti ambrosii de florentia. die XV mensis decembris MCCCCLXXXI. Qui scripsit scribat semper cum domino uiuat. Amen. finis. deo gratias” — Legat. In assi e pelle’ (133). The cataloguers note that while Bacchi della Lega cited this codex as only missing in the middle, it is also missing in the beginning: it begins with chap. XLIV following until almost all of chap. CXXVII, then, after a long lacuna, the copy begins again a little after the beginning of chap. CLXXXVIII. The copy begins: ‘Della chiesa di sancto giouanni euangelista. Dinanzi alla piazza stando nella strada uolto al ponente et andando truoiui un trebbio, pigliando a mano sinistra et appresso truoui una casa’. The copy ends: ‘Anco nella cipta di Jerusalem sie lo tempio di Salamone et iui yhesu cristo fece miracoli molti etc. Anco una chiesa di sancta barbera in babillonia’ (133–4). 21 – The descriptions of the plants and animals of Egypt are found on folios 83r and 93v. Another notable omission in the illustrations of Panc. 79 is a depiction of the pyramids, referred to as the granai del faraone (granaries of the pharaoh). The unillustrated description is found on fol. 70v. Panc. 79 also includes several figural illustrations which are not found in other illustrated copies or the 1500 Viazo, including depictions of Niccolò’s interpreter being taken away in the Arabian desert (fol. 73) and the reunion with his interpreter (fol. 88r) 22 – The original preface, written in the first person in which Niccolò da Poggibonsi explained when and why he made his four-year journey through the Holy Land — found in II. IV. 101, Panc. 78, and Panc. 79 — has been replaced in Spencer 62 with a vague introduction to the Holy Land voyage, without any reference to an author. Spencer 62 exhibits other unique features, including appendices on Rome and Fiesole (folios 129v–36v) with illustrations of St. Peters, Castel Sant'Angelo, the city of Rome, and the town of Fiesole. The unique account of the indulgences gained from visiting certain places in Fiesole suggests that the ms was perhaps produced in that Florentine town. 23 – The Spencer Collection's notes on the ms are as follows: ‘spencer ms. 62, Italian Gothic [Noe, frater Ordinis S. Francisci], Il viaggio della terra sancta di yherusaleme (f. 1). Paper (watermark: basilisk, very similar to Briquet 2674, chain 31–40, ff. 103 & 104; unidentified watermark, ff. 73 & 76), 139 ff. [+2 added paper leaves, one at the beginning of the ms, one at the end] (8 11/16 × 6 5/16 in.) (220 × 160 mm, f. 77). Contemporary (?) foliation in arabic numerals in ink (same colour as that of the text — see below), pp. 1–138; final leaf foliated in pencil: 139. Written in 29 long lines (147 × 92 mm, f. 19). Ruled in faint black ink on each page. No bounding lines. Quinternions are the norm, signed with a catchword on the version of the last leaf of each gathering. Collation: I 9 (ff. 1–9) II–XIV 10 (f. 10. Script is Italian Gothic — littera textualis — by a rather mediocre scribe, written in black ink (faded to brown). Compare facsimile 199 in E. M. Thompsons’ An introduction to Greek and Latin paleography (Oxford, 1912), p. 470 — a similar but better executed and slightly more formal Italian hand dated to 1451. Titles for chaps. and captions for illustrations are in red in the script of the text; likewise, the introduction to the text, on f. 1. Decoration: 155 coloured pen and ink drawings, varying in size according to the space left available, the largest full-page. Space is provided for initials and guide letters are written in tiny cursive script; no initials were ever inserted. Binding: plain vellum. Provenance: Purchased for the Spencer Collection from L'Art Ancien and accessioned on April 9, 1954’. 24 – I think it is possible that the text of Spencer 62 was the immediate source for both Egerton 1900 and the 1500 Viazo. For instance, while II. IV. 101 and the unillustrated copies of the Libro d'Oltramare describe Vespasian as having besieged Jerusalem for seven years with six legions of cavalry, Spencer 62 refers to seven legions of men (sette legioni de populo), as does Egerton 1900 and the 1500 Viazo (sette lege di populo). There are other examples which more directly suggest that changes in the text of the 1500 Viazo were due to the mediating role of Spencer 62, rather than Egerton 1900. In the description of the four columns which bewail the death of Christ in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Egerton 1900, II. IV. 101, and the unillustrated copies describe a door with an arched vault (una porta ad arco volta). The 1500 Viazo, on the other hand, strangely refers to una messa. In Spencer 62 we find that the arched door is described as a porta messa in volta, perhaps misread as una messa by Giovanni Cola. In a translation and analysis of the text of the 1533 Viaggio just published in 2007, the editors argued that variations between the printed and ms versions of Niccolò da Poggibonsi's guidebook were due to the intervening role of the German translation, Egerton 1900. The authors were not aware of the existence of Spencer 62 or the other illustrated Italian ms copies of the guidebook. See Jean-Luc Nardone and Jacqueline Malherbe-Galy, La représentation de Jérusalem et de la Terre sainte dans les récits des pèlerins européens au XVIe siècle. Études et essais sur la Renaissance, 75 (Paris: Honoré Champion, 2007). 25 – The acrostic citing Niccolò da Poggibonsi as the author (mentioned above) is found in most of the unillustrated copies and in all three illustrated copies now in the Biblioteca Nazionale, although only in fragmentary form in the two Panciatichiani. In II. IV. 101, large spaces have been left blank for the initial letters — presumably the intention was for a professional illuminist to fill in the capitals, although this was never done. The acrostic is not to be found in either Spencer 62 or the 1500 Viazo. In both cases, modifications to the text have altered the first letter of each chapter, and in both cases, any reference to Niccolò da Poggibonsi as the author have been omitted from the text. 26 – In the beginning of the twentieth century several scholars of pilgrimage literature had taken issue with Bacchi della Lega's text, observing that his primary source was one ms — Riccardiano 1279 — which was the least trustworthy of all the known copies. This is what prompted the recreation of a modern version of the text of the Libro, as translated into English by Bellorini and Hoade in 1945 and simultaneously published in Italian in the same year, also by the Jerusalem Franciscan Press. The basis of this translation was an unillustrated copy of Niccolò’s text in the archives of St. Saviours's in Jerusalem, supposedly copied from another unillustrated version now in Perugia (and formerly belonging to the family Fraziani). Given these problems with Bacchi della Lega's scholarship on Niccolò da Poggibonsi, then his dating of II. IV. 101 to the fifteenth century also seems less than trustworthy. There is, in fact, no immediate reason to presume that II. IV. 101 dates to the fifteenth century. It is substantially different from the four illustrated fifteenth-century copies discussed here, both in terms of the script and the nature of the illustrations. The only indication I have found of a scholar in the twentieth or nineteenth century looking directly at II. IV. 101, rather than just citing it in the list of known copies of the Libro, is in an obscure nineteenth-century ‘illustration’ of a copy of Simone Sigoli's fourteenth-century pilgrimage account. The author of the essay, Francesco Poggi, transcribed two passages from II. IV. 101 (again without making mention of the illustrations) and analysed the word choice in reference to this other fourteenth-century ms in order to determine if the same person had written both. His conclusion was that it was a different person, but for our purposes it is significant that he took II. IV. 101 as an example of a fourteenth-century ms. Francesco Poggi e Luigi Fiacchi, Viaggio al monte Sinai di Simone Sigoli; testo di lingua citato nel vocabulario ed or per la prima volta pubblicato con due lezioni sopra il medesimo (Florence: Tip. All'insegna di Dante, 1829). The essay starts on page XXIV, and is entitled ‘Di Alcuni viaggi d'oltramare del Trecento e specialmento di quello di Simone Sigoli, lezione di Francesco Poggi’. Poggi cites Niccolò’s description of Bethlehem, as transcribed from II. IV. 101. 27 – The illustrations of Mount Sinai in both the 1500 Viazo and Spencer 62 were also exhibited at Princeton in 1960 as part of a show on ‘Mount Sinai and the Monastery of Saint Catherine’. Spencer 62 was dated to around 1470 for this exhibition. The copy of the Viazo used was from Harvard. 28 – For the drawings of the Templum Salamonis and Templum Domini in Egerton 1900, see Cossar, plates 3–4. 29 – Niccolò continues to explain: ‘How it is within, I know not, because the cursed Saracens have made of it a mosque; and he who would enter it, will deny the faith or be sawn in two’ (Bellorini and Hoade, p. 47). The text quoted here is from Bellorini and Hoade's 1945 English translation. When compared word by word, the Italian texts of II. IV. 101, Panc. 78, and Panc. 79 closely correspond to this published edition. In contrast, the text of Spencer 62 most significantly diverges (and the author name is also omitted) while still maintaining the same sequence and content of Niccolò da Poggibonsi's original guidebook. Marco di Bartolommeo Rustici copied Niccolò's description of the Templum Domini almost word for word in his own personal guidebook, produced in the 1440s in Florence and now known as the Rustici Codex. Marco, however, misinterpreted the description of the dome being like a hat (cappello) as referring to a chapel (cappella): ‘The Tempio di Domine is beautiful from the outside and is a marvel to see, and it is all round and the chapel is made of three faces with beautiful windows and columns’ (f. 199). This is my translation from a transcription of the Italian made by Kathleen Olive for her dissertation completed in 2004 in Sydney: Creation, imitation, and fabrication: Renaissance self-fashioning in the Codex Rustici. While a complete transcription of the Codex Rustici remains to be published, Lucia Gai included a transcription of the chapter on the Holy Sepulchre in ‘La “dimostrazione dell'andata del Santo Sepolcro” di Marco di Bartolommeo Rustici Fiorentino (1441–42)’, Toscana e terrasanta nel medioevo, ed. Franco Cardini (Florence: Alinea, 1982): pp. 189–234. Marco Rustici also copied Niccolò’s description of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, as he did for all of the buildings of the Holy Land. 30 – Bellorini and Hoade, p. 12. 31 – ‘Above the arch of the said door which opens, there is a figure of the Blessed Virgin with the child in arms, and it is mosaic work, but now the greater part is damaged; and the lintel above the door, under the figure, is of white marble, and on it is carved, first, Christ raising to life Lazarus; second, Christ mounted on an ass, with the colt beside the ass; third, the children and the people of Jerusalem in crowds coming forth to meet him with palms … fourth, the Lord at supper with his disciples; fifth, the arrest of Christ and the embrace of Judas. And the wood of the door is of old planks. In the door five palms above the floor, there is a window big enough for a man to put in his head and see the chapel of the Holy Sepulchre and part of the church. The said door has two locks sealed on top, that they may not be interfered with …’ (Bellorini and Hoade, p. 12). 32 – Ibid., p. 21. 33 – ‘And I have described all the conditions and views of the holy church of Jerusalem, which God gave me the grace to visit and understand, and I abode within the church for four full months’ (Bellorini and Hoade, p. 22). 34 – The missing folios in both Panc. 78 and Panc. 79 include the sections on Damascus and Cairo. 35 – Ibid., pp. 87–8. Fustat was commonly referred to as Babylon, the name of the Roman fortress there. Niccolò later explains that ‘there are two Bablyons; one to the east, which Nebroth [Nemrod] began to build, who built the city of Babylon in Chaldea, of which the master was Nabuchodonosor; he also built the tower of Babel… . The said city is deserted and is a three moth's journey from the Babylon of Egypt and nobody can go there, and some who boast that they have gone, tell an awful lie; for I tried to go there and in no way could …’ (Bellorini and Hoade, p. 94). 36 – ‘Three miles outside of Cairo of Babylon there is a large building called Mathalia [Matarieh]. When the Virgin Mary fled into Egypt on the persecution of King Herod, with her son Jesus Christ and Joseph, as she was in this place she felt a great thirst; and she looked at her Son and said: I am thirsty. And forthwith appeared a beautiful fountain of water, and she drank and Joseph and they washed the woolens of Christ. And as far as fell the drops of water from the woolens of Christ, in that ground sprang up the balsam, and elsewhere in the world it does not grow, as I have been told… . And the garden is enclosed with strong walls and the Sultan also keeps a big guard, for all about are horsemen in tents and barracks… . [T]here in that place is a well, above which is a wheel, by which water is drawn with which to water the said garden, where grows the balsam, and this wheel is turned by a pair of oxen all day long …’ (Bellorini and Hoade, p. 93). 37 – Bellorini and Hoade, p. 88. 38 – For the Peregrinatio, see Hugh William Davies, Bernhard von Breydenbach and his journey to the Holy Land 1483–4: a bibliography (London: J. & J. Leighton, 1911). Davies believed that Breydenbach and his group of fellow pilgrims met the author of the anonymous Viazo da Venesia in 1483, as he was on his way from Mount Sinai to Jerusalem — although we know now that would have been a historical impossibility (v). There is a long-standing presumption of the Viazo’s derivative status in relation to the Peregrinatio, in terms of both its text and illustrations, despite a lack of any direct relation between the two. Before the author of the Viazo was rediscovered in the early twentieth century,
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