21 - BURCHARD OF MOUNT SION: Descriptio Terra Sanctae. Magdenburg, 1587, together, BARTHOLOMEO DE SALIGNAC: Itinerarium Hierosolymitani idem 1587, together at head, ALBERT OF STADE: Chronicon, Helmestand, 1587, together HUGH DE FLERY: Chronicon, Monasteri Westphaliae, 1588

BURCHARD OF MOUNT SION: Descriptio Terra Sanctae. Magdenburg, 1587, together, BARTHOLOMEO DE SALIGNAC: Itinerarium Hierosolymitani idem 1587, together at head, ALBERT OF STADE: Chronicon, Helmestand, 1587, together HUGH DE FLERY: Chronicon, Monasteri Westphaliae, 1588 The three accounts in first edition, Salignac in second, all bound in one volume. In 8vo. Contemporary vellum over boards, paper on covers worn with some loss. Some light browning and spotting, otherwise a very good copy of a book 450 years old. Burchard of Sion’s travel account of the Levant is the most detailed surviving record for the 13th century. Between c.1270 and 1285 he traveled through Asia Minor, Cilicia, and Syria before reaching the Holy Land, where he remained for several years, and finally Egypt. His narrative, one of the very last from the Latin Kingdom before its fall in 1291, is of particular importance for its descriptions of the conditions of Greek and Armenian Christians in the Levant. This is the first printed edition, though the text had circulated widely in manuscript form since the Middle Ages. De Salignac’s Itinerary to Jerusalem, undertaken in 1522, provides a full account from Venice to Jerusalem through the Greek lands. One chapter covers the Ionian islands-Corfu, Cephalonia, and Zante-as well as Rhodes, Tilos, and Nisyros, all still under the Knights of St. John just before the Turkish conquest, before continuing to Attalia and Venetian Cyprus. A separate chapter is devoted entirely to Cyprus. His extensive descriptions of the Holy Land reflect the perspective of a Renaissance traveler, more curious and descriptive than his medieval predecessors. First published in 1525, this early Lyon edition is now practically unobtainable, as most copies perished. Albert of Stade, a monk who as a youth took part in the Fourth Crusade, later retired to a German monastery and composed his Chronicon in the mid-13th century, full of valuable information for his time. Hugh de Fleury contributed an extensive history with many references to the Muslim conquest of the Greek lands up to the early 14th century. Together, these early travel accounts and chronicles form an important collection focused on the Levant and the Christian presence there across centuries.