Author of the Holy Land Travel manuscript, active 17th century; Dapper, Olfert, 1635 or 1636-1689
Timespan:
Early works to 1800
Date:
1690s
Description:
Extensively illustrated treatise on the geography, cartography, flora, fauna, history, economy, ethniticies, and languages of the Holy Land, drawing heavily on the 1681 German edition of Olfert Dapper's Asia, oder, Genaue und gründliche Beschreibung des gantzen Syrien und Palestins, oder belobten Landes, but also incorporating numerous additions from other published sources and marginal notes,comments, Biblical citations, and Hebrew spellings by the compiler. Without introduction, the text begins with Damascus and ends with the Church of the Sepulcher of Mary. Occasional stubs in the manuscript do not represent loss of text. An index follows the text.
Language:
German
Provenance:
Gift of Benjamin Zucker in honor of Alfred Moldovan, 2010.
242 leaves : paper; 195 x 160 (150 x 125) mm bound to 205 x 175 mm (with 4 folded-outs up to 195 x 305 mm)
Geographic Subject:
Palestine -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800; Syria -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800; Middle East -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800; Middle East; Syria
Rights:
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/
Notes:
Ms. codex.; Title supplied by cataloger.; Pagination: Paper, 242 leaves; 1-244, contemporary pagination in ink, upper outer corners of text pages only; leaves of drawings or maps and leaves left blank for drawings or maps, so numerous as almost to alternate with text leaves, are unpaginated.; Layout: Frame-ruled in lead; index written in 2 columns.; Script: Written in German cursive script by a single hand.; Decoration: Approximately 180 detailed illustrations in ink, including 85 maps (4 fold-outs with maps on recto and verso, before p. 85, after p. 92, before p. 105, and before p. 197), city views, landscapes, botanical illustrations, and Biblical scenes. Many early text pages (through p. 36) have small illustrations in the box formed by the intersection of the upper and inner margins, often related to an adjacent illustration page.; Watermark: An ascending bear (coat of arms of Bern), as used by the Güntisberger Erben papermakers in Worblaufen near Bern from 1690 to 1700 (The paper-mills of Berne and their watermarks, 1465-1859, plate 71, p. 166).; Binding: Near-contemporary (late 17th- or early 18th-century) parchment.; Origin: Written in Switzerland, probably Bern (based on watermark and internal text reference, p. 14), in the 1690s (based on watermark); a marginal quotation from a book published in 1702 may be a later addition (Anna Baechtold, University of Bern).; Byname: Zucker Holy Land travel manuscript.; German, in the Upper German dialect used in parts of Switzerland and southern Germany (Anna Baechtold, University of Bern), with vocalized Hebrew spellings of key words and place names.
Physical Location:
Library at the Katz Center, Rare Book Manuscripts, CAJS Rar Ms 455
The Penn Libraries makes materials accessible to improve information equity and enhance teaching, research,
and learning. See our Sensitive Materials Statement
for more information.