Jonathan Rubin

Bar Ilan University | BIU · Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology

Composed in the 1280s by a Dominican friar, Burchard of Mount Sion’s Descriptio Terre Sancte remained an influential account of the Holy Land for centuries. The impact of this text is reflected not only by the large number of extant manuscripts, but also by its rich printing history. And yet, although the Descriptio attracted considerable scholarly...

It has been argued in recent years that Western ethnographic curiosity and writing grew significantly during the late medieval period. Surprisingly, the Latin East has remained almost completely neglected within this scholarly context. The present paper aims to fill this lacuna by exploring a discourse within the kingdom of Jerusalem which focused...

This contribution is dedicated to the preliminary presentation of two previously unknown Latin texts, which provide instructions for pilgrims, and are included in the same fifteenth-century manuscript. The first text is devoted to spiritual instructions while the second lists practical ones. After brief introductory notes, the two texts appear in E...

Cambridge Core - European Studies - Learning in a Crusader City - by Jonathan Rubin

This article offers a first study and edition of Burchard of Mount Sion’s ‘Egyptian section’. This text—hitherto almost completely neglected by scholars—provides a detailed account of Egypt, and is preserved in its entirety in two manuscripts, following Burchard’s Descriptio Terrae Sanctae. The present work provides an analysis of the contents and...

A Hebrew manuscript in the Parma Palatinate Library, produced in the fourteenth century, probably in Provence, contains adaptations from Latin/Romance texts, including two that originate in the Christian crusading tradition. These two sections consist mainly of historical and geographical data relating to the Levant. The Hebrew adaptations, althoug...

This article examines a rediscovered work by the thirteenth-century physician Benvenutus Grapheus de Iherusalem. Surviving only in a late medieval German translation, it contains select recipes and medical procedures. The study of this compilation offers new insight into two important aspects of Benvenutus's life: It provides a more precise dating...

With over a hundred surviving manuscripts and around twenty printed editions dating to before 1746, Burchard of Mount Sion's Descriptio Terrae Sanctae is a text of extraordinary importance. And yet, many questions concerning the author and the text remain unresolved to this day. This article explores for the first time a hitherto unknown extended v...