These days, which printed guidebooks compete with online sites, there’s a wealth of travel information, but in the 15th century, travelers were pretty much on their own until Bernhard von Breydenbach decided to share what he had learned on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
His book, Peregrinatio in Terram Sanctam or Pilgrimage to the Holy Land, published in 1486 and now on display at the British Museum, is arguably the first-ever travel guide. The book is also notable for the large maps and illustrations by Erhard Reuwich, a Dutch artist who accompanied him. In addition to Jerusalem, it has sections on places they passed through, including Venice.
The book was a ‘best-seller’ in its time, in part because the illustrations were among the earliest actual illustrations of the places involved; up to then most writing about these places was fanciful and the illustrations invented. The British Museum is showing it as part of an exhibit “Inspired by the East: How the Islamic World influenced Western Art.
The success of the book, by the way, encouraged von Breydenbach to write more, covering trips to Corfu, Rhodes and Cairo. Baedecker, Frommer, Fodor and the rest may well look to him as a forebear not only in inventing the guidebook, but making a series of it.
in 1486, following his pilgrimage to the Holy Land from 1483-1484, and features illustrations of Venice and Jerusalem made by the Dutch artist Erhard Reuwich, who travelled with the writer.
