8vo. xxv, 104 pp., contemporary half-calf with marbled boards, marbled endpapers, title gilt on raised spine, book plate of Dampierre verso front cover, foxing throughout, Gedruckt auf Kosten des Litterarischen Vereins, Stuttgart, 1851.

Synopsis

Beyond the fact that he made a journey to the Holy Land between 1336 and 1341, very little is known about Ludolf von Suchem (whose first name may in fact have been Rudolf). However, his work has long been regarded as a major source of information about the eastern Mediterranean in the fourteenth century, owing to its high level of detail. Ludolf states his intention to describe the region, its buildings, towns, fortified places, people, customs, stories and legends, drawing on both his own observations, and on information from the ‘kings, princes, nobles and lords’ with whom he spent days and nights in conversation. Some stories are clearly travellers’ tales, but others, like his account of the fall of Acre (1291), based on reports by eyewitnesses, are both full and convincing.
This edition of the Latin text was published in 1851, with German annotation, by Ferdinand Deycks (1802–67).
Contents as follows:
1. De terra sancta; 2. De Constantinopoli; 3. De via per terram et de regno Garp; 4. De Barbaria et Pugia; 5. De mari mediterraneo; 6. De diversis maris periculis; 7. De periculo Gulph; 8. De periculo Grup; 9. De periculis siccarum; 10. De periculis piscium; 11. De diversis piscibus; 12. De passagio volucrum; 13. De navigatione per mare, de Troia et insulis; 14. De Sicilia insula; 15. Vulcanus mons; 16. Syracusana civitas; 17. Achaia; 18. Ephesi civitas; 19. De diversis maris insulis, inprimis de Rhoda; 20. De Cypro; 21. De vinca Engadi; 22. Civitas Famagusta; 23. De Salamina et Nicosia; 24. De civitatibus maritimis; 25. De gloriosa civitate Acon; 26. De perditione civitatis Acon; 27. De Gaza et Azoto; 28. De monte Carmeli; 29. De Aegypto; 30. Hortus balsami; 31. Christiani et monumenta vetera; 32. Babylonia antiqua seu Baldach; 33. De Nilo fluvio; 34. De terra Aegypti; 35. De deserto et monte Sinai; 36. De deserto Syriae; 37. De Hebron, valle mambre et Bethlehem; 38. Ierusalem civitas sancta; 39. De triginta denariis; 40. Mons Oliveti; 41. Desertum, Iericho, Sodoma et Gomorra; 42. De Iordane fluvio; 43. De Ramatha, Silo, Emaus, Sichar, Samaria et Galilaea; 44. Damascus civitas; 45. De valle Bokar, Libano et Baruth.