How to Cite
License (Chapter)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Identifiers (Book)
Published
Authorial and Scribal Interventions in Medieval Accounts of the Holy Land
Burchard of Mount Sion’s ‘Descriptio Terre Sancte’ as a Test Case
Abstract Burchard of Mount Sion’s ‘Descriptio Terre Sancte’ is a Latin account of the Holy Land composed in the 1280s. Its detailed nature as well as its carefully crafted structure made it popular in late medieval and early modern times. The ‘Descriptio’ was not only widely read and cited, it was also constantly re-edited, first by its author and later by generations of scribes and editors. Following a recent study which resulted in the production of a stemma codicum of the so-called ‘long version’ of the ‘Descriptio’, the present paper further investigates such editorial processes, aiming to provide new insights into both the nature of Burchard’s own efforts to revise his work, and the ways in which, intentionally and unintentionally, later scribes brought about changes in this popular treatise. Inter alia, this study traces the ways in which the cultural gap between Burchard and some of these scribes – for example with regard to their acquaintance with the Holy Land’s geography – shaped the development of the ‘Descriptio’ and its reading from the time of its original composition until the present.
