Egerton MS 3298

MARTINUS SEUSENIUS: JOURNAL OF A PILGRIMAGE TO THE HOLY LAND entitled 'Verteickenisse mijner reijse so ick gedaen hebbe vp Hijerusalem in Iudea'; 28 Mar. 1602-15 June 1603. Dutch (Netherlandish-Low German dialect of East Friesland). Copy (mid 17th cent.). The journey commenced at Leeuwarden in West Friesland and continued through the Netherlands, Germany, the Austrian Alps, Venice, Crete, Cyprus and Jaffa to Jerusalem and elsewhere in Palestine, returning via Gaza, Cairo, Alexandria, Venice, the Austrian Alps, Germany and the Netherlands to Aurich in East Friesland. Seusenius, a Roman Catholic, would appear to have been resident in West or East Friesland but describes himself as of Mergentheim in Franconia in the copy (f. 60) of the certificate attesting his visit to Jerusalem (on such certificates see R. Röhricht, Deutsche Pilgerreisen nach dem Heiligen Lande, Innsbruck, 1900, pp. 72, 289-291, etc.); and while the language of the journal is of the East Friesland dialect, there is a strong admixture of High German, especially South German, elements. The descriptions of the journeys and of the places visited are factual, with some commentary (historical details, Biblical references and occasional notes or citations in French and Latin); and the narrative is interrupted at one point to insert details of nine divisions, or sects, in Eastern and African Christendom (ff. 65-72b). The manuscript was described, with some extracts, in H. F. Mühlau, Martinus Seusenius' Reise in das heilige Land i. J.1612, Kiel, 1902, and was edited by H. F. Mühlau, Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palaestina- Vereins, xxvi, 1903, pp. 1-92 (some placename identifications amended by G. Beyer, ibid., li, 1928, pp. 270-273). Five printed maps, executed or published by Nikolaas Janszoon [Class Jansz.] Visscher (described by H. F. Mühlau, Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palaestina-Vereins, xvi, 1893, p. 229) are guarded or bound in, viz:-

(1) Geographische Beschryvinge, van de Wandeling der Apostelen ende Pauli; Mitsgaders de Landen en Rijken daer sij het Evangelium eerst hebben vercondrcht. Met vlyt gecorigeert door Claes Iansz. Visscher. 'G. Coeck Sculpsit C. J. Visscher [monogram] excudit.' 168 mm. x 390 mm. ff. 11b-12.

(2) De Heylige en wytvermaerde Stadt Ierusalem, eerst genaemt Salem. C. J. Visscher [monogram] Excu. 1643 .' 168 mm. x 210 mm. f. 31b.

(3) Perigrinatie ofte Veertich-iarige Reyse der Kinderen Israels uyt Egipten, door de Roode-zee; mitsgaders de Woestyne tot int beloofde Landt Canaan ... int licht gegeven door Claes Janss Visscher int Iaer 1649. 'Fr. Brun fe.' 168 mm. x 210 mm. f. 32.

(4) Geographische beschryvinge van Het Ioodtsche Landt, doorwandelt van onsen Heere ende Salichmaecker Iesu Christo neffens syne Apostelen. van nieus met groote verbetering uyt gegeven door Claes Ianss Visscher. 'C. J. Visscher [monogram] Excu.' 170 mm. x 214 mm. ff. 62b-63.

(5) De Gelegentheyt van t'Paradys ende t'Landt Canaan, Mitsgaders de eerstbewoonde Landen der Patriarchen, door C. I. Visscher. 'Abraham van den Broeck fecit. C. J. Visscher [monogram] Excu.' 168 mm. x 214 mm. ff. 77 b-78. On the back of each map is a related printed text (with a different title) and the maps were produced for insertion in Bibles, as directions on each sheet demonstrate; they are numbered, in the lower right-hand corner, 1-5 according to the order of their insertion in the Bible (of those above described, 1 = 5, 2 = 3, 3 = 2, 4 = 4, 5 = 1). Several versions of these maps were executed or published by Visscher (d. 1652) and those in this manuscript may derive from more than one version, especially since the two dated maps are of different years. Several versions of folio size are to be found in the Department of Printed Books, viz.: one set dated 1642 (inserted in a Bible printed at Leiden, 1636-7, L. 11.e.2), the same set save for the Jerusalem sheet (no. 3) which is dated 1643 (examples inserted in Bibles printed at Leiden, 1641, L. 13. a. 9; Amsterdam, 1642, L. 11 . b. 4; Dordrecht, 1645, L. 12. h. 2), and a similar set dated 1648 (example inserted in a Bible printed at 's-Gravenhage, 1649, L. 12.h.5). An Amsterdam Bible of 1657 (L. 11.e.3) has five undated maps; all but one were published by Nicolaes Visscher (three still carry the CJV monogram of his father). The maps in this manuscript resemble those in the dated sets of 1642 and 1648 (though never identical) much more than those in the 1657 Bible, except in one connection; the script of maps 2, 4 and 5 (numeration of the lower right-hand corner) in this manuscript resembles that of the corresponding maps in the 1657 Bible rather than that ofthe maps of 1642 and 1648. The maps are not mentioned in the catalogue of Visscher's work in Maria Simon, Claes Jansz. Visscher, Freiburg i. Br., 1958; later versions of some, under the name of Nicolaes, are mentioned in R. Röhricht, Bibliotheca geographica Palaestinae, Berlin, 1890, pp. 615-616. The maps were guarded and bound in with the rest of the manuscript and it can be presumed that the dates of publication of the maps were not distant from the time of the copying of the text; the evidence of the watermarks (see below) also suggests a midseventeenth century date for the manuscript. Paper; ff. iv x 123. 190 mm. x 135 mm Mid XVII cent. Written in a regular clear hand, with few corrections; f. 55 blank. Idiosyncracies of spelling and some manifest mistakes, both in the main narrative and especially in French quotations, may be attributable to the copyist rather than to the author (H. F. Mühlau, op. cit., 1902, pp. 9, n. 44, 10 and op. cit., 1903, p. 1). Copied probably in Holland; of the watermarks some are certainly Dutch and others have Dutch connections, viz:-(1) coat of arms resembling E. Heawood, Watermarks, 1950, no. 491 (no date or place, but on the analogy Of 482-6 and 492, Dutch, first half of the 17th cent.), e.g. ff. 104, 105; (2) coat of arms analagous to Heawood, ibid., no. 518 A (Holland, 1629), e.g. ff. 36, 37; (3) arms of Amsterdam and letters PB resembling W. A. Churchill, Watermarks in Paper, 1935, no. 2 (1651), e.g. ff. 121, 122; (4) Fool's Cap analogous to Churchill, op. cit., nos. 337, 344 (French, etc., 1649-1651) and Heawood, op. cit., no. 1921 (Dutch, 1648-1649), e.g. ff. 117, 118. Contemporary vellum binding; title (20th cent.?) in ink on the spine, 'Anonymus / Reise / ins H. Land. / 1602.' Given, 25 Aug. 1669, to Anthony de Sadeler by his father, according to a note on f. 1; on the same folio the names of 'Johannes Jansen' in an (?) 18th-century hand, and 'H. Lotze. 1864.', i.e. Hermann Lotze a bibliophile of Leipzig (H. Mühlau, op. cit., 1903, p. 2). The manuscript was, no. 645 in Köhler, Antiquar. Catalog. cclxxix, Leipzig, 1876, (according to R. Röhricht, Bibliotheca gecgraphica Palaestinae, 1890 p. 228) but by 1893 was in the possession of Professor Heinrich Ferdinand Mühlau of Dorpat (op. cit., 1893, p. 218), later Professor at Kiel (d. 1914), whose bookplate is f. iii (signature also on f. 1). Lot 294 in a German auction sale-cat. (unidentified, between 1903 and 1930; cutting (f. iv) attached to f. 1). Stevens auction sale-cat. 2 Dec. 1930, lot 347, purchased by the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum (inventory no. 74755: labels, ff. i, ii, at the foot of the spine and lower left-hand corner of the front cover).