Hans Jacob Breuning Von Buchenbach. Orientalische Reyss… in der Turkey… Egypten, Arabien, Palestina, das Heylige Gelobte Land und Syrien.

(ISRAEL, LAND OF)

Johann Carolo

Strassburg

1612

Fold-out map of Jerusalem. Engravings and illustrations include woodcut historiated border on title, five divisional titles, author’s portrait, coats-of-arms and 48 small vignettes in the text including: Maps, architectural facades, coats of arms, costumes, travel scenes and exotic animals. The images of animals are after those in P. Belon’s Les observations de plusieurs singularitez et choses memorables, Paris, 1553.

Hans Jacob Breuning Von Buchenbach (1552-1616) belonged to an old noble family of Tübingen. Together with Jean Carlier de Pinon he went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land together in 1579. His travel chronicle, illustrated with numerous engravings, was first published in 1612. Breuning is interested in the particularities of the ethnicities he came to know during his journey, is fond of description and a keen observer. Because of the immediacy of his descriptions, his Orientalische Reyss was a success throughout Europe with readers whose fear of the Ottoman Empire and its inhabitants was giving way to increasing curiosity and cautious interes