Joannes Cotovicus. Itinerarium Hierosolymitanum et Syriacum.

(ISRAEL, LAND OF)

Hieronymous Verdussen

Antwerp

1619

First edition, first issue with large engraving of Jerusalem on title. 57 engravings with city views and five full-page maps. Five folding tables at end. Two parts in one.

Tobler p. 87.

A native of Flanders, Johannes van Cootwijck, or Johannes Cotovicus (d. 1629) qualified as Doctor of Law at the University of Utrecht. In April 1598 he departed from Venice for his pilgrimage to the Holy Land. After sailing across the Adriatic Sea and through the Eastern Mediterranean, with Crete and Cyprus as ports of call, he arrived in Palestine. On his return trip he visited Syria, staying in Aleppo for three months, and finally reached Venice in May 1599. His chronicle, which continues the tradition of similar 16th-century works, was published in Latin ten years later. The work contain a dense amount of historical information drawn from Greek and Latin sources (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Homer, Horace, Pliny, Polybius, Ptolemy, Pythagoras, Strabo) as well as contemporary authors. The text is illustrated with views and maps, on-page bibliographical references, inscriptions and passages from the Bible. Jerusalem, the Holy Sepulchre, Bethlehem and the other sacred places are described in detail and accompanied by interesting ground plans (Blackmer, 416).