Bernhard von Breydenbach’s ‘photo album’

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem, 2018
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Breydenbach/Reuwich, 1486

The Peregrinatio in Terram Sanctam or Sanctae Peregrinationes, an account of a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, written by Bernhard von Breydenbach, was published in 1486, with the illustrations drawn by illustrator Ernst Reuwich of Utrecht. Breydenbach made the pilgrimage in 1483-4, taking Reuwich with him to draw the sites en route and the Holy Places.  Over the coming months, a small group (Anthony Bale, John Wyatt Greenlee, and Anna Waymack) will be experimenting with the development of a ‘photo album’, comparing the images in Breydenbach’s late 15th-century pilgrimage guide with contemporary photos. Watch this space!