Obj. ID: 40954  Viaggio da Venezia al S. Sepolcro, et al Monte Sinai by Noe Bianco, Lucca, 1600

This text was prepared by William Gross:

A record of the journey made from Venice to Palestine by the Franciscan Friar Noe Bianci. The volume served as a quasi-guide for travelers to Palestine.
Noe Bianco made his pilgrimage to the Holy Land around 1527 and died in Peruggia in 1568. He followed the usual pilgrim route without unforeseen events that would cause him to modify his itinerary. Thus, he sailed out from Venice and reached Palestine after stopping over at the Venetian cities on the Adriatic, the Ionian Islands and the islands of the southern Aegean. Bianco toured Jerusalem and the nearby holy sites and returned to Venice by way of Cyprus, Crete and Corfu in November 1527.
Journey of Noe Bianco through Italy, Eretz Israel and the vicinity. Within the text appear more than one hundred illustrations (woodcuts), most of which depict towns and ports as well as various pilgrimage sites in Eretz Israel. Illustrations include views of Venice, Corfu, Jaffa, Ramla, Jerusalem, Solomon's Temple, Rachel's Tomb, Bethesda Pool, and illustrations of Noah’s Ark, Tower of Babel, Cain and Abel, etc. The Franciscan monk Noe Bianco started his journey in Venice in 1527, went through the Greek Islands and the Aegean Islands, and arrived in Eretz Israel and visited Jerusalem and the holy sites in the vicinity. This book, documenting the journey, was first published in 1566, and additional editions were published during the 16th-18th centuries.
His chronicle was published in 1566 and republished many times (1570, 1585, 1638, 1738). In 1600, a very well-known although anonymous pilgrim account in Italian began to circulate as authored by Bianco, probably an editorial strategy to ensure success with the reading public. To date, scholarship has not reached a conclusion as to the authorship of the work’s various editions, and great confusion continues to dominate on this question. Probably a crucial difference as to content is that probably the extracts signed by Bianco are marked by a more personal tone.
The first part of the chronicle contains a list of necessary provisions for the journey to the Holy Land, and advice on the preparation of the journey. The 1600 edition is illustrated with numerous wood engravings that depict mainly ports, locations and pilgrim sites in the Holy Land, something original for pilgrim chronicles of the time. A schematic view of Jerusalem appears twice in the book, with the Temple of Solomon being represented in the form of the Dome of the Rock.