BREYDENBACH (Bernhard Von). & HUEN (Nicolas Le).

Le Grant Voyage de Hierusalem divisé en deux parties. En la premiere est traicte des peregrinations de la saincte cité de Hierusalem, …

A SUMPTUOUS COPY OF BREYDENBACH’S CELEBRATED ACCOUNT OF THE HOLY LAND, WITH THE FAMOUS ARABIC ALPHABET AND FOLDING WOODCUT PLATES

Third French edition. Two large folding woodcut plates, thirty-seven woodcut illustrations in the text, six woodcut alphabets and numerous woodcut initials. 4to. Mid nineteenth-century English straight-grained red morocco (by C. Smith), foliate corner-pieces gilt, spine gilt in compartments with five raised bands, inner dentelles gilt, a.e.g., marbled endpapers; light wear to extremities of spine, corners slightly bumped, otherwise near fine. A few instances of very light foxing and staining to text, rest of interior exceptionally clean and fresh. Paper repairs to the folding plates, the most noticeable applied to two closed tears affecting the crusades plate. Both plates appear to have been cleaned and refolded, most likely when the book was rebound. [iv], 209ff. Paris, Nicolas Hygman for François Renault, 1522.

£40,000.00

A handsome copy of the third edition of Nicolas Le Huen’s French adaption of Breydenbach’s remarkable account of his pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1483/84. First published as Peregrinatio in terram sanctam (Mainz, 1486), the work is hugely significant as the first authentic Western source on the Holy Land (and the Middle East more widely), and as a watershed moment in the history of printing, being the first printed book to include the Arabic alphabet and to feature folding illustrations. This edition includes a version of the woodcut Arabic alphabet and two stunning folding plates, one of which is a beautiful adaption of the original 1486 view of Jerusalem, expertly combining the woodcut image with typographic text.

Bernhard von Breydenbach (c.1440-1497) was a politician in the Electorate of Mainz and was (supposedly) inspired to undertake the pilgrimage to absolve himself of sin. His journey to the Holy Land, via Venice, Corfu and Rhodes, began in April 1483 and reached its terminus in January of the following year. The published account was ground-breaking, especially for its reliable information, in text and image, on the Islamic Near and Middle East. As Erhard Reuwich, the artist who accompanied Breydenbach, both executed the illustrations and printed the first edition, the woodcuts are the first book illustrations to accurately depict the Holy Land.

The work proved highly popular and was published in eight incunable editions and twelve editions overall between 1486 and 1522. This French adaptation by Nicolas Le Huen was first published in Lyon in 1488, and is not a translation of Breydenbach, but rather a superimposition of Le Huen’s own experiences on the original text, using the narrative as a blueprint: the dates and details are almost all different and the description of the return journey is entirely new. (Though some sections, such as the description of Mount Sinai and St Catherine’s monastery, are faithful translations.)

Le Huen’s text was reprinted in 1517 for Regnault and again in 1522. To this 1517/22 version a second part was added, divided into sections: the first seven concern European endeavour in the Middle East, consisting of pertinent texts culled from different chronicles and sources, such as Giovanni Rota’s history of Shah Ismail I of Persia (Rome, 1508). The eighth section shifts to South Asia, containing Cabral’s 1500 voyage to Calicut (Kozhikode) with an account of manners, costume etc. taken from Montalboddo, as is the ninth section which includes four letters: firstly, the announcement of Cabral’s discovery of a New Land “terre de papegaulx”, secondly the discovery of Labrador by Corte-Real, thirdly material concerning J. de Nova’s voyage of 1502 and fourthly the treaty signed between the King of Portugal and the ruler of Calicut and the voyage of “de la frote” of 1502-3.

The aforementioned folding woodcuts, here in good condition, are often wanting or in facsimile. That of Jerusalem was specially made for the 1517 edition and is an adaption of the Reuwich original. The second shows the blessing of the Christian Kings prior to their departure on crusade (with some verses which supply an acrostic giving the authorship to Oronce Fine), and the siege of Jerusalem. Of the smaller cuts, the six alphabets are copied from the 1488 Lyon edition and that of the Holy Sepulchre is copied from the Mainz edition of 1488 (therefore after Reuwich). The remainders are included in the 1522 edition for the first time and are from various sources. The exception is the large cut of Charles Martel, which is retained from 1517.

Provenance: Nicolas Yemeniz (1783-1871), of Lyon, sale, Paris, 1867; then Ambroise-Firmin Didot (1790-1876), bookseller and bibliographer, sale, Paris, 1883; then William Amhurst Tyssen-Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst of Hackney (1835-1909), sale, Sotheby, March 1909; later Giannalisa Feltrinelli, sale, Christies, (1995-2001).

Stock No.
192732