Burchard of Mount Sion (Latin : Frater Burchardus, also misnamed Brocard or Bocard; fl. late 13th century), was a German priest, Dominican friar, pilgrim and author probably from Magdeburg in northern Germany, [1] who travelled to the Middle East at the end of the 13th century. There he wrote his book called: Descriptio Terrae Sanctae or "Description of the Holy Land" [2] which is considered to be of "extraordinary importance".
It is the most detailed account of the Holy Land from the thirteenth century. It is described as having belonged to a class of its own among medieval descriptions of the Holy Land. [3] Approximately 100 medieval and early modern manuscripts are known today, some of which include maps and diagrams. [4]
The long version, unlike the short version, contains additional descriptions that illustrate Burchard's journey from Europe to the Holy Land and back. He travelled to Mamluk Egypt and Angevin Sicily, among other places, and in two manuscripts of the long version he shares his observations during the ascent of the volcanic mountain Vulcano. [5] Burchard was in Palestine for 10 years between 1274 and 1284. He then visited Armenia where he wrote about the court of the king of Cilician Armenia, Levon II. Burchard described the country of Cilician Armenia as submitted to Mongol domination, [6] and explains that Mongols were present at the royal Armenian court:
Actually, I spent three weeks with the king of Armenia and Cilicia, who had with him some Tartars. The rest of the attendants were Christians, to the number of about 200. I saw them gather to go to church, listen to the office, bend the knee, and pray with devotion.
— Burchard of Mount Sion, 1282. [7]
Having completed his business there, Burchard sailed to Cyprus, where, he tells us, he was kindly received by Henry II of Jerusalem the last ruling and full titular King of Jerusalem (after the fall of Acre on 28 May 1291, this title became empty) and also ruled as King of Cyprus.
Burchard also wrote a plan for a Crusade, in which he recommended the conquest of Orthodox Serbia and Constantinople as pre-requisites to the accomplishment of a Crusade. His plan is said to have been rather impractical, and to have displayed a dislike of Orthodox Christians, more than of Muslims themselves. [8]
In 1455 Philip the Good Duke of Burgundy ordered his secretary, Jean Miélot, canon of Lille and miniaturist to translate the Descriptio Terrae Sanctae, by Burchard of Mount Sion (1283). The translation was embellished by him with beautiful miniatures of Jerusalem copies of which are held in Bibliothèque nationale de France, Royal Library of Belgium and the Bodleian Library, Oxford. [9] For Burchard's Jerusalem, the map of Jerusalem by Marino Sanudo in his Liber Secretorum Fidelium Crucis . [10] An English translation of the original longer manuscript is provided in Denys Pringle's collection of translated pilgrimage texts part of the Crusade Texts in Translation series published by Ashgate. [11]
Burchard is one of the last pilgrims to travel to the Holy Land and write a full report before the fall of the Latin Kingdom in 1291. According to Jaroslav Folda the account is important not only because of its systematic and yet selective content, but also because of the extent of the actualia included in his discussion. [12]
The Monastery of the Cross is an Eastern Orthodox monastery near the Nayot neighborhood of Jerusalem. It is located in the Valley of the Cross, below the Israel Museum and the Knesset.
Felix Fabri was a Swiss Dominican theologian. He left vivid and detailed descriptions of his pilgrimages to Palestine and also in 1489 authored a book on the history of Swabia, entitled Historia Suevorum.
Crusader art or the art of the Crusades, meaning primarily the art produced in Middle Eastern areas under Crusader control, spanned two artistic periods in Europe, the Romanesque and the Gothic, but in the Crusader kingdoms of the Levant the Gothic style barely appeared. The military crusaders themselves were mostly interested in artistic and development matters, or sophisticated in their taste, and much of their art was destroyed in the loss of their kingdoms so that only a few pieces survive today. Probably their most notable and influential artistic achievement was the Crusader castles, many of which achieve a stark, massive beauty. They developed the Byzantine methods of city-fortification for stand-alone castles far larger than any constructed before, either locally or in Europe.
Hayton of Corycus was a medieval Armenian nobleman, monk and historiographer.
The Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society (PPTS) was a text publication society based in London, which specialised in publishing editions and translations of medieval texts relevant to the history of pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Particular attention was given to accounts by pilgrims and other travellers containing geographical or topographical information, as well as those which discussed the manners and customs of the Holy Land. The original narratives were written in a variety of languages, including Greek, Latin, Arabic, Hebrew, Old French, Russian, and German.
Niccolò da Poggibonsi was a Franciscan friar of the 14th century who made a famous pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1345–50, which he described in Italian in his Libro d'oltramare.
Mongol Armenia or Ilkhanid Armenia refers to the period in which both Armenia and the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia became tributary and vassal to the Mongol Empire in the 1230s. Armenia and Cilicia remained under Mongol influence until around 1335.
De situ terrae sanctae is a short 6th-century report of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Its author is identified in a 9th-century manuscript as a German archdeacon named Theodosius.
John of Würzburg was a German priest who made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the 1160s and wrote a book describing the Christian holy places, the Descriptio terrae sanctae.
Descriptio terrae sanctae or Description of the Holy Land may refer to:
The Libellus de locis sanctis is a 12th-century Latin guide book and travelogue of Palestine designed for the use of Christian pilgrims to the Holy Places. It "stands out" from the mass of medieval guide books "for its literary and informative qualities".
Rorgo Fretellus, also spelled Fetellus, was a Frankish priest in the Kingdom of Jerusalem who wrote a widely circulated description in Latin of the Christian holy places in the Holy Land, the Descriptio de locis sanctis.
The Libellus de expugnatione Terrae Sanctae per Saladinum, also called the Chronicon terrae sanctae, is a short anonymous Latin account of the conquests of Saladin in the Holy Land between 1186 and 1191. The core of the text was written shortly after the events it describes and then supplemented by the addition of an account of the Third Crusade early in the thirteenth century. This probably took place at Coggeshall Abbey in England. Neither the original author nor the continuator/compiler is known by name.
Thietmar or Dithmar was a German Christian pilgrim who visited the Holy Land in 1217–1218 and wrote an account of his travels, the Liber peregrinationis.
The Liber Secretorum Fidelium Crucis is a Latin work by Marino Sanuto the Elder. It is one of the "recovery of the Holy Land" treatises intended to inspire a revival of the Crusades. It has also been named as Historia Hierosolymitana and Liber de expeditione Terrae Sanctae, and Opus Terrae Sanctae, the last being perhaps the proper title of the whole treatise as completed in three parts or "books".
Historical sources of the Crusades: pilgrimages and exploration include those authors whose work describes pilgrimages to the Holy Land and other explorations to the Middle East and Asia that are relevant to Crusader history. In his seminal article in the Catholic Encyclopedia, Dominican friar and historian Bede Jarrett (1881–1934) wrote on the subject of Pilgrimage and identified that the "Crusades also naturally arose out of the idea of pilgrimages." This was reinforced by the Reverend Florentine Stanislaus Bechtel in his article Itineraria in the same encyclopedia. Pilgrims, missionaries, and other travelers to the Holy Land have documented their experiences through accounts of travel and even guides of sites to visit. Many of these have been recognized by historians, for example, the travels of ibn Jubayr and Marco Polo. Some of the more important travel accounts are listed here. Many of these are also of relevance to the study of historical geography and some can be found in the publications of the Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society (PPTS) and Corpus Scriptorum Eccesiasticorum Latinorum (CSEL), particularly CSEL 39, Itinerarium Hierosolymitana. Much of this information is from the seminal work of 19th-century scholars including Edward Robinson, Titus Tobler and Reinhold Röhricht. Recently, the Independent Crusaders Project has been initiated by the Fordham University Center for Medieval Studies providing a database of Crusaders who traveled to the Holy Land independent of military expeditions.
The Acre Bible is a partial Old French version of the Old Testament, containing both new and revised translations of 15 canonical and 4 deuterocanonical books, plus a prologue and glosses. The books are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, Judith, Esther, Job, Tobit, Proverbs, 1 and 2 Maccabees and Ruth. It is an early and somewhat rough vernacular translation. Its version of Job is the earliest vernacular translation in Western Europe.
The fall of Outremer describes the history of the Kingdom of Jerusalem from the end of the last European Crusade to the Holy Land in 1272 until the final loss in 1302. The kingdom was the center of Outremer—the four Crusader states—formed after the First Crusade in 1099 and reached its peak in 1187. The loss of Jerusalem in that year began the century-long decline. The years 1272–1302 are fraught with many conflicts throughout the Levant as well as the Mediterranean and Western European regions, and many Crusades were proposed to free the Holy Land from Mamluk control. The major players fighting the Muslims included the kings of England and France, the kingdoms of Cyprus and Sicily, the three Military Orders and Mongol Ilkhanate. Traditionally, the end of Western European presence in the Holy Land is identified as their defeat at the Siege of Acre in 1291, but the Christian forces managed to hold on to the small island fortress of Ruad until 1302.
The Monastery Saint Claire, also known as the Convent of Mary's Fear and by other names, is a convent of the Poor Clares on Tremor Hill in southern Nazareth, Israel. Established in 1884, it is primarily known for the productive time the now-sainted Charles de Foucauld spent there at the end of the 19th century. Expelled from the Ottoman Empire at the onset of World War I, the nuns of the abbey relocated to Malta, founding a new community there. The Sisters of St Clare returned to Nazareth in 1949 but used newer facilities on 3105 Street on the north slope of Tremor Hill. Their former location beside what is now Paulus HaShishi Street was repaired by the Servants of Charity for use as a special needs school in the 1970s.
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