Sunday, December 15, 2019

John of Würzburg

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'''John of Würzburg''' ([[Latin]] ''Johannes Herbipolensis'') was a [[Germans|German]] priest who made a [[Christian pilgrimage|pilgrimage]] to the [[Holy Land]] in the 1160s and wrote a guide book describing the [[List of Christian holy places in the Holy Land|Christian holy places]], the ''Descriptio terrae sanctae'' (Description of the Holy Land).<ref name="Stewart">Stewart, "Preface" to [[#CITEREFJohn_of_Würzburg1890|John of Würzburg 1890]], pp. ix–xii.</ref>

All that is known of John's life is what he records in his ''Descriptio''. He says that he was a priest of the [[Würzburg Cathedral|church of Würzburg]] and he dedicated his work to a friend named Dietrich (Theoderic). One manuscript of the ''Descriptio'' from [[Tegernsee Abbey]] calls John the [[bishop of Würzburg]], but there was no bishop named John. Possibly the copyist or whoever added the description of John to the Tegernsee manuscript confused him with his friend, who is sometimes the identified with [[Dietrich of Hohenburg]], who was bishop of Würzburg in 1223–24. This identification is not certain.<ref name="Stewart"/> Nor is the identification of Dietrich with the man of the same name who went on a pilgrimage around 1172 and wrote his own account of it, the ''[[Libellus de locis sanctis]]''.<ref name="Wendehorst">.</ref>

John's pilgrimage took place while the holy places belonged to the Christian [[Kingdom of Jerusalem]], but before the major renovation of the [[Church of the Holy Sepulchre]]. He may have written his ''Descriptio'' several decades after the pilgrimage, possibly after 1200.<ref>So the early modern historians [[Johann Albert Fabricius]] and [[Bernhard Pez]] believed.</ref> His account is not entirely based on what he himself saw, he admits that he made use of eyewitness reports and in some cases borrowed from other travel guides. He probably landed at [[Akko|Acre]], when he travelled to [[Nazareth]], [[Jenin]], [[Nablus]], [[Jerusalem]], [[Bethlehem]] and [[Jaffa]], where he took ship home. His description of these places is mostly that of an eyewitness.<ref name="Stewart"/>

John's Latin is educated but ordinary and he has shown little care in the organization of his material, which has at times led to his ''Descriptio'' being dismissed as of little value.<ref name="Stewart"/> It has, however, aroused interest for its early indications of the rise of national feeling in Europe. John was a German patriot who laments the lack of credit given to the German [[First Crusade]]rs.<ref name="Wendehorst"/> In his thirteenth chapter, he writes:
<blockquote>Three days afterwards is the anniversary of noble Duke Godfrey of happy memory <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[Godfrey of Bouillon]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>, the chief and leader of that holy expedition, who was born of a German family. His anniversary is solemnly observed by the city with plenteous giving of alms in the great church, according as he himself arranged while yet alive. But although he is there honoured in this way for himself, yet the taking of the city is not credited to him with his Germans, who bore no small share in the toils of that expedition, but is attributed to the French alone.</blockquote>

==Editions==
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==References==


[[Category:12th-century German people]]
[[Category:German Roman Catholic priests]]
[[Category:Holy Land travellers]]


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