Travelogues of Palestine are the written descriptions of the region of Palestine by travellers, particularly prior to the 20th century. The works are important sources in the study of the history of Palestine and of Israel. Surveys of the geographical literature on Palestine were published by Edward Robinson in 1841,[1] Titus Tobler in 1867[2] and subsequently by Reinhold Röhricht in 1890.[3] Röhricht catalogued 177 works between 333 – 1300 CE, 19 works in the 14th century, 279 works in the 15th century, 333 works in the 16th century, 390 works in the 17th century, 318 works in the 18th century and 1,915 works in the 19th century.[4]
In total, there are more than 3,000 books and other materials detailing accounts of the journeys of primarily European and North American travelers to Ottoman Palestine. The number of published travelogues proliferated during the 19th century, and these travelers' impressions of 19th-century Palestine have been often quoted in the history and historiography of the region, although their accuracy and impartiality has been called into question in modern times.[5] [6]
Chronological list by years of travel, also indicating first publication, and/or edition available online.
Date | Author | Title (with link) | Language | Editions | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
333 | Anonymous | Itinerarium Burdigalense | Latin | ||
380s | Itinerarium | Latin | |||
414–449 | Letter to Faustus | Latin | |||
c. 500 | Anonymous | Breviary of Jerusalem | Latin | ||
518–530 | Theodosius | De Situ Terrae Sanctae | Latin | ||
c. 530 | Synecdemus | Greek | |||
570s | Latin | ||||
698 | Arculf (with Adomnán) | De locis sanctis | Latin | ||
778 | Willibald (with Hygeburg) | Hodoeporicon | Latin | Vita Willibaldi episcopi Eichstetensis, Hannover, 1887[7] | |
800s | Itinerarium | Latin | |||
985 | Description of Syria | Arabic | |||
1003–1077 | Nasir Khusraw | Safarnama | Persian | Nāṣer-e Khosraw's book of travels (Safarnāma), 1986. | |
1108 | Puteshestive igumena Daniila | Russian | |||
1138 | Descriptio de locis sanctis | Latin | |||
1147 | Ekphrasis | Greek | |||
1157 | Níkulás Bergsson | Leiðarvísir og borgarskipan | Icelandic | ||
1160s | Description of the Holy Land | Latin | |||
1172 | Theoderich | Libellus de locis sanctis | Latin | ||
1173 | Travels or Itinerary | Hebrew | |||
1187? | Chronicle of Ernoul and Bernard the Treasurer | Book: Ernoul. Bernard le Trésorier . Ernoul . Mas Latrie. Louis. Louis de Mas Latrie. Chronique d'Ernoul et de Bernard le Trésorier / publiée, pour la première ... . 1871 . Mme Ve J. Renouard . fr. none. Book: Conder . 1896 . Library of the Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society . . 6 . | |||
1192 | Historia de profectione Danorum in Hierosolymam | Latin | |||
1170s–1180s | Travels of Rabbi Petachia of Ratisbon | Hebrew | |||
1210 | Hebrew | ||||
1211–1212 | Itinerarium terrae sanctae | Latin | Book: Pringle, Denys. Denys Pringle . Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187-1291. 2011. Ashgate Pub. 978-1-4094-3607-2. 785151012 . English. none. Book: Laurent, J.C.M. . Wilbrands von Oldenburg Reise nach Palaestina und Kleinasien: lateinisch und deutsch mit erklärenden Anmerkungen und einer Biographie des Verfassers . T.G. Meissner . Harvard College Library preservation microfilm program . 1859 . de. none. | ||
1217–18 | Iter ad sanctam terram | Latin | Book: Laurent, J.C.M. . Mag. Thietmari Peregrinatio . Nolte & Köhler . Jahresbericht Johanneum Hamburg . 1857 . none. Book: Tobler, T. . Iter ad sanctam terram anno 1217 . Huber . 1851 . none. | ||
1249 | account lost | ||||
1274–1284 | Descriptio Terrae Sanctae | Latin | Book: Laurent, J. C. M. . Peregrinatores Medii Aevi Quatuor. 1864. J.C. Hinrichs. Leipzig. Latin . none. Book: Laurent, J. C. M. . Peregrinatores Medii Aevi Quatuor. 1873. 2. Leipzig. Latin . none. The library of the Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society. 12. Translated by Aubrey Stewart. Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society. 1896. Extended text: Book: Pringle, Denys . Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187-1291. 2011. Ashgate Pub. 978-1-4094-3607-2. 785151012 . English. none. | ||
1285–1289 | Book: Pringle, Denys . Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187-1291. 2011. Ashgate Pub. 978-1-4094-3607-2. 785151012 . English. none. | ||||
1289 | Liber Peregrinationis | Latin | Book: Laurent, J.C.M.. Peregrinatores medii aevi quatuor: Burchardus de Monte Sion, Ricoldus de Monte Crucis, Odoricus .... 1864. J.C. Hinrichs. Latin . 102ff . none. Book: Pringle, Denys . Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187-1291. 2011. Ashgate Pub. 978-1-4094-3607-2. 785151012 . English. none. | ||
1300 | Cosmographia | Arabic | |||
1320s | Itinerarium Symonis Semeonis ab Hybernia ad Terram Sanctam | Latin | |||
1370s | Khozhdenie arkhimandrita Agrefen'ia obiteli preosviatye Bogoroditsy | Russian | |||
1384–85 | Viaggio di Lionardo di Niccolo Frescobaldi in Egitto e in Terra Santa | Italian | published in 1821 by Guglielmo Manzi | ||
1420 | Voyaige d'oultremer en Jhérusalem | French | first published 1858 | ||
1400 | A history of Mamluk sultans of Egypt | Arabic | Book: none. Al-Maqrizi . Al-Maqrizi . Histoire des sultans mamlouks, de l'Égypte, écrite en arabe . 1, part 1 . . 1840 . Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland . Paris . fr, la. | ||
1433 | Travels of Bertrandon de La Brocq́uière | French | Bertrandon de La Brocquière, Thomas Johnes, Legrand, Translated by Thomas Johnes, (1807): The Travels of Bertrandon de La Brocq́uière, to Palestine: And His Return from Jerusalem Overland to France, During the Years 1432 & 1433. Extracted and Put Into Modern French from a Manuscript in the National Library at Paris, 336 pages | ||
1458 | Accounts of the 1458 pilgrimage: Giovanni Matteo Bottigella, Latin; Gabriele Capodilista, Italian Anton Pelchinger, German; Roberto Sanseverino d'Aragona, Italian; William Wey, Latin; an anonymous Dutch account | various | R. J. Mitchell, The Spring Voyage: The Jerusalem Pilgrimage in 1458 (London: Readers Union, 1965). | ||
1480 | Italian | ||||
1483 | Latin | Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society, 1893–1896.[8] | |||
1483 | Peregrinatio in terram sanctam (1486) | Latin | |||
1483 | Paul Walter von Guglingen[9] | Latin | Sollweck, M. Fratris Pauli Waltheri Guglingensis Itinerarium in Terram Sanctam et ad Sanctam Catharinam, 1892. | ||
1486 | Georges Lengherand | French | |||
1486 | Description of a pilgrimage from Konstanz to Jerusalem |
| |||
1486 | Girolamo da Castiglione | Description of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land | Italian | ||
1486 | Description of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and Mount Sinai | French | |||
1480s | Tvoyage van Mher Joos van Ghistele (1577) | Dutch | |||
1586 | Giovanni Zuallardo | Description of a pilgrimage to Jerusalem | Latin | Giovanni Zuallardo, Dominique Danesi, Jac Demius, Philippe de Mérode (1595): Il devotissimo viaggio di Gierusalemme: fatto, e descritto in sei libri Published by Appresso Domenico Basa, 351 pages | |
1598 | Itinerarium Hierosolymitanum et Syriacum | Latin, 1617; Dutch, 1619. | |||
1608 | Journey from Bohemia to the Holy Land, by way of Venice and the Sea | Czech | |||
1615 | George Sandys | A Relation of a Journey Begun an Dom. 1610 | English | ||
1630s | Historica, theologica et moralis terræ sanctæ elucidatio..., 1639. | Latin | Italian: "Itinerario di Caldea del Rev. P. Francesco Quaresmio e di Fr. Tomaso da Milano suo compagno... l'anno 1629", ed. Marcellino da Civezza, (1895), 597-608. Cf: . | ||
1634 | Henry Blount | A Voyage Into the Levant | English | ||
1652 | Jean Doubdan | Le voyage de la Terre-Sainte...[1657] | French | 1657; 1661; 1666... | |
1670s | Seyahatnâme ("book of travels") | Ottoman Turkish | |||
1665 | Relation d’un voyage fait au Levant | French | |||
c. 1653–1697 | Voyage dans la Palestine | French | French, 1717 etc; English, 1718 etc; English, 1962 (Lewis). | ||
1703 | A Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem At Easter A. D. 1697 | English | |||
1700s | Ichnographiæ locorum et monumentorum vete-rum Terræ Sanctæ, accurate delineatæ et descriptæ | Latin |
. George Anson, 1st Baron Anson. 1853. A voyage round the world, in the years 1740, 41, 42, 43, 44 (compiled by R. Walter).
. William George Browne. 1799. Travels in Africa, Egypt and Syria From the year 1792 to 1798. T. Cadell junior and W. Davies, Strand; and T. N. Longman and O. Rees, Paternoster-Row. .
de:Van Egmond van de Nijenburg
. Heyman . John . 1759. Travels through part of Europe, Asia Minor, the islands of the archipelago, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Mount Sinai, &c. giving a particular account of the most remarkable places . London. L. Davis and C. Reymers. 2.. Fredric Hasselquist. Hasselquist . Fredrik . Carl . von Linné. 1766 . Voyages and Travels in the Levant in the Years 1749, 50, 51, 52: Containing Observations in Natural History, Physick, Agriculture, and Commerce, Particularly on the Holy Land, and the Natural History of the Scriptures. Printed for L. Davis and C. Reymers . Printed for L. Davis and C. Reymers, 456 pages
it:Giovanni Mariti
. 1792 . Dublin. P. Byrne.. François Baron de Tott. 1786. Memoirs of Baron de Tott: Containing the state of the Turkish empire & the Crimea, during the late war with Russia. With numerous anecdotes, facts, & observations, on the manners & customs of the Turks & Tartars. 2 . G.G.J. & J. Robinson., Item notes: v. 2
to which are annexed, observations on the plague, and on the diseases prevalent in Turkey, and a meteorological journal Printed and sold by James Humphreys, 595 pages