Hans VI. Tucher, Reise in das Gelobte Land: Druckvorlage, um 1481/82

Description

The Nuremberg patrician Hans VI Tucher (1428-1491) had travelled the Holy Land in 1479/80. The notes on his journey were to become the most important travelogue of the late Middle Ages. With this Codex we have the final text version in which Tucher completes the transformation of his individual travelogue into a guide designed for pilgrims. It went through three text stages: from the first, which is preserved as an autograph in the Landesbibliothek Coburg (Coburg State Library), to an intermediate stage in the British Library, and on to this Nuremberg manuscript, which also served as a copy for printing. Before the text went into print, it was revised again, with the participation of Nuremberg council clerk Jörg Spengler. Stylistically he contributed a great deal to the final version. A new addition was a foreword in which Tucher appears as author and source. To dispel all accusations that the journey had been secularly motivated, Tucher stresses that he had travelled "solely for the glory of God and for the salvation of my soul, and not out of glory, curiosity or other frivolity. He shared his experiences in book form so that like-minded pilgrims could prepare better for the journey. The manuscript remained in the family's possession and was virtually unknown. During the Second World War it was kept with other family items in the vault at the Tucher-Palais on Egidienplatz, where it survived the bombing of Nuremberg in 1945 with just minor damage.