Read Online Theoderich Guide to the Holy Land Historical Travel Series Ronald G Musto Aubrey Stewart Books

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Theoderich’s “Guide to the Holy Land” is one of the best known and most widely used of the medieval pilgrim’s guides to Jerusalem and the Holy Land. Written around 1172 by the German monk Theoderich of Würzburg, it offers a complete guide to the city’s sacred sites and history, as well as to the legends and places of historical interest in the medieval kingdom of Jerusalem only fifteen years before its destruction by Saladin. The sites are so accurately drawn that Theoderich has become a major source for medieval knowledge of the region and for Jerusalem’s topography. He gives detailed descriptions of its art and architecture, especially for the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, with precise notations of architectural elements, building materials, and housing styles, as well as accurate comparisons to buildings in Europe. His work offers valuable descriptions of fields full of ripe barely and roses, groves of palm and olive, orchards, natural features and various stone and soil types. He also offers a dispassionate picture of a multi-cultural society, of Moslems living side-by-side with Christians, carrying on their agriculture and trade with their customary work routines and traditions. But Theoderich also explores a geography of the imagination of Jerusalem as the center of the universe, a cosmological fact so clear to him that he shows us proof marked clearly in its stones and pavements. In Theoderich’s Guide mythology and travel narrative combine to offer a Holy Land of miracle and natural wonder. Here are rivers that run underground, here the Dead Sea casts up the stone and wood of Sodom and Gomorra every year on the anniversary of their destruction, here also still stands the pillar of salt that was once Lot’s wife. The Guide to the Holy Land is thus a valuable resource for the travel lore and the sacred geography of the Middle Ages. Based on Aubrey Stewart’s translation from the Latin. Illustrated, new introduction, maps, bibliography, and index.

Read Online Theoderich Guide to the Holy Land Historical Travel Series Ronald G Musto Aubrey Stewart Books

"The German monk Theoderich wrote the Guide to the Holy Land around 1172. It is a complete guide to Jerusalem's sacred sights as well as places of popular legends and historical interest of the entire crusader state. This guide was written four years before Saladin captured most of the kingdom. Theoderich gathers most of his information from his own pilgrimage (the introduction points out which places he went to and routes he took) but when the de describes places he did not visit (border regions), his sources are hearsay and verge into the legendary and fanciful. To the medieval Christian the Holy Land was not only important because of it's associations with the Bible but also because it was perceived to have deep legendary and mythical meaning as the Navel of the world. This is illustrated by medieval T-Maps (also in the volume) whose very center is Jerusalem. The Jerusalem of Theoderich's day had around 30,000 men. Many of the sites Theoderich describes in the Holy Land especially in Jerusalem are so accurately drawn that he is a major source for medieval knowledge of the region, Jerusalem's Topography, the history of art and archeology etc... Even his fanciful descriptions of the border regions (the Dead Sea throws up every year the ruins of Sodom and Gomorra and a pillar of salt that was Lot's wife) are important to historians since they show us the geographic lore and sacred geography of the time. The guide is completely oblivious to the political geography of the time either in the Crusader state or outside since the readers were pilgrims who had taken up the most difficult and most important pilgrimages mostly for religious reasons. The guide's widespread readership also illustrates an invigorated popular religion influenced in part by the Twelfth Century Renaissance's renewed interest in the Early Church.

The illustrations of the edition are gathered from other Medieval sources. THe introduction is a wonderful addition to the Guide and sets the background for the work and it's importance to medieval historians."

Product details Paperback 108 pages Publisher Italica Press, Inc.; Subsequent edition (December 12, 2008) Language English ISBN-10 0934977038

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Theoderich Guide to the Holy Land Historical Travel Series Ronald G Musto Aubrey Stewart Books Reviews :

Theoderich Guide to the Holy Land Historical Travel Series Ronald G Musto Aubrey Stewart Books Reviews

• The German monk Theoderich wrote the Guide to the Holy Land around 1172. It is a complete guide to Jerusalem's sacred sights as well as places of popular legends and historical interest of the entire crusader state. This guide was written four years before Saladin captured most of the kingdom. Theoderich gathers most of his information from his own pilgrimage (the introduction points out which places he went to and routes he took) but when the de describes places he did not visit (border regions), his sources are hearsay and verge into the legendary and fanciful. To the medieval Christian the Holy Land was not only important because of it's associations with the Bible but also because it was perceived to have deep legendary and mythical meaning as the Navel of the world. This is illustrated by medieval T-Maps (also in the volume) whose very center is Jerusalem. The Jerusalem of Theoderich's day had around 30,000 men. Many of the sites Theoderich describes in the Holy Land especially in Jerusalem are so accurately drawn that he is a major source for medieval knowledge of the region, Jerusalem's Topography, the history of art and archeology etc... Even his fanciful descriptions of the border regions (the Dead Sea throws up every year the ruins of Sodom and Gomorra and a pillar of salt that was Lot's wife) are important to historians since they show us the geographic lore and sacred geography of the time. The guide is completely oblivious to the political geography of the time either in the Crusader state or outside since the readers were pilgrims who had taken up the most difficult and most important pilgrimages mostly for religious reasons. The guide's widespread readership also illustrates an invigorated popular religion influenced in part by the Twelfth Century Renaissance's renewed interest in the Early Church.
  
  The illustrations of the edition are gathered from other Medieval sources. THe introduction is a wonderful addition to the Guide and sets the background for the work and it's importance to medieval historians.