Cabinet 10: Italian Travel Books
Pilgrimage texts held an important place in medieval and early modern society. They guided the reader on actual journeys to the locations described, typically Jerusalem or Rome, but also functioned as armchair guides, so that the reader was able to take a spiritual journey by reading the guidebook, if he was unable to undertake the physical journey. These are two copies of an anonymously-authored work that nevertheless attained considerable authority as a guide to Rome, despite its inaccuracies and errors.
Historia et Descriptio Urbis Romae. Indulgentiae Ecclesiarum Principalium Urbis Romae (Rome: Eucharius Silber, 1499) de Beer Itb 1499 I