Jean-Baptiste Colbert's Breydenbach: the first printed travel report of the Middle East, including the first Arabic alphabet in print

Breydenbach, Bernhard von. Peregrinatio in terram sanctam.

€ 220,000.00

Editio princeps of the first modern account of a journey from Venice to the Holy Land: Jean-Baptiste Colbert's copy, preserved in its elegant, 17th century marbled vellum binding, and later in the library of the Earls of Macclesfield.

This is the first issue (with the misprints "matire" and "pera") of "the first illustrated book of travel ever printed [...] [T]he folding panoramic views [...] are the first authentic representations of the famous places depicted, i. e., the ports usually visited by every pilgrim of the period [... The] artist was Erhard Reuwich [..., who] graphically record[ed] the impressions of the voyage" (Davies). The splendid panoramic folding views, hailed by William Morris as "the best executed illustrations in any medieval book", show Venice (more than 160 centimetres long), Porec and Corfu (both ca. 40 cm), Methoni, Crete and Rhodes (all ca. 80 cm) as well as Jerusalem (ca. 125 cm).

This work is considered the first authentic Western source for the Middle East, as the illustrations were prepared on the spot, from personal observation of the lands and people described. Breydenbach travelled to the Holy Land in 1483/84 with a large party including the artist Reuwich. Following the traditional route, they travelled from Venice to Corfu, Modon, Crete, Rhodes and Jaffa before arriving in Jerusalem, and then through the Sinai desert to Mt. Sinai, Cairo, and Alexandria on the return journey. The book quickly became extremely popular and was translated into French, Dutch and Spanish before 1500. It includes illustrations of Middle Eastern and Bedouin costume, a glossary of common Arabic words, and pictures of animals encountered on the journey (including a crocodile, a camel, and even a unicorn), as well as an Arabic alphabet - the latter of especial importance for being the first of its kind ever to see print: "The first representation of Arabic letters in a printed book was done in Germany; this was the woodcut of the Arabic alphabet in Bernhard von Breydenbach's 'Peregrinatio'" (Toomer).

The views in this copy are well preserved throughout and present as complete, although two have rather substantial facsimile portions: in the view of Venice, the left seven of altogether nine page-width panels have been supplied on old paper, while in that of Jerusalem and the Holy Land (frequently lacking altogether), the left five (of seven) panels have been supplied. The view of Rhodes has a small paper repair in the middle, with minor loss to the caption "Rodis".

The present first edition is extremely rare in the trade, usually appearing only in severely mutilated copies or even in fragments comprising no more than a few leaves; copies preserved in early bindings with fine provenance are highly sought after. Only two are listed in auction records since 1900: the Doheny copy, with two leaves supplied from another copy (Christie's NY, 22 Oct. 1987, lot 12: for $110,000, to H. P. Kraus), and the Perrins-Wardington copy (complete), sold at Sotheby's in 2005 for £265,600 (today, approximately 500,000 Euros). The Consul Smith copy sold at Christie's in 2018 lacked one quire consisting of the Jerusalem view and two woodcut scenes, as well as about half of the Venice and Rhodes views.

A prestigious copy from the library of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the great French statesman who served as First Minister of State from 1661 until his death in 1683 under the rule of King Louis XIV. Colbert was a passionate bibliophile, who formed, with the scholar Carcavi, a collection famous throughout Europe.