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CASTILLO, ANTONIO DE El Devoto Peregrino y Viaje de Tierra Santa
Paris, 1666. Pergamino De Época, 4to Mayor. Antonio Mureto, 1666, 4°, complete, all plates present.El Devoto Peregrino, y Viage de Tierra Santa, written in Spanish by Antonio del Castillo and first published in Madrid in 1654. A good copy bound in contemporary limp vellum.This popular traveler’s account of a journey to the Holy Land was reissued in many later printings, including the Paris edition of 1666 held by Brandeis [Rare McPar DS106 .C35 1666]. The volume is in its original binding of quarter red leather over green marbled boards with a paper label containing a manuscript title on the spine. The title page includes a small vignette of Jerusalem, and there are numerous engraved head- and tail-pieces and ornamental initials throughout. Antonio del Castillo was a Franciscan friar sent by his superiors to the Holy Land in the first part of the seventeenth century. From there he travelled to Alexandria, Egypt, and several other countries in the Middle East. In this volume, he describes his visits to Jerusalem, Nazareth, Jaffa, and the mountains and desert of Judea, with particular emphasis on the holy places he encountered there. The final portion of the book is given over to an account of the liturgy at the various important churches he visited, including the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. Most striking in this volume are the numerous folded plates illustrating various aspects of the friar’s travels, particularly two enormous printed maps of Jerusalem, one representing the city as it might have looked in the first century (Descriptio Ierusalem quomodo florvit tempore D.N. Iesu Christi [Plan of Jerusalem as it flourished in the time of our Lord Jesus Christ]), and the second portraying the city as it looked in the early seventeenth century (Novae Ierosolymae et locorum circumiacentium accurata imago [Accurate image of the new Jerusalem and of the places nearby]). Both of these maps are fascinating in their detail, with more than a hundred individual sites singled out for additional description in each instance. These include, in the first, the entire Via Dolorosa, the Way of the Cross, with all fourteen Stations of the Cross illustrated in miniature on the map, culminating in a depiction of the crucifixion and the tomb of Jesus in the bottom left corner. In the opposite corner, Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus, is shown hanging from a tree. In addition to such obvious Christian imagery, care was also taken to depict the Jewish character of the city in the first century. The map features, among other places, the Palatium Davidis et Regum Iude (The Palace of David and the King of the Jews), and an intricate depiction of the temple, complete with the Holy of Holies (Sanctum Sanctorum), in which the Ark of the Covenant is shown guarded by two cherubim. The second map (below) depicts the city from the opposite side, looking down upon Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, which is to the east of the city. The first striking difference is the accurate depiction of the Muslim holy sites, the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque, atop the Temple Mount in the center of the image. This map was likely produced from sketches of the city made from atop Mount Olivet, and thus is probably relatively accurate in its portrayal of the appearance of the city in the early seventeenth century. As in the first map of the city, numerous locations are singled out for special mention, including, for example, the Tomb of Isaiah (Isaiae Sepulchrum) to the left of the Temple Mount and Bethlehem off in the distance in the upper left of the image. Like the first map, this one may be seen in more detail by clicking on the image, which will enlarge the scan. These maps are only two of the many detailed engravings in this volume, which include smaller maps and images embedded in the text, such as the below depiction of the town and surroundings of Bethany, as well as additional large folding plates with architectural depictions of important churches in and around Jerusalem, including a plan of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, complete with a depiction of the Stigmatization of St. Francis in the upper right corner, as the church was one of the sites administered by the Franciscans. [Palau 48039]. Excellent/Very Good.
Offered for EUR 2000.00 = appr. US$ 2580.40 by: El Arte de la Memoria scp - Book number: castillo1666
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