Hans VI. Tucher, Reise in das Gelobte Land: 5. Druckausgabe, Straßburg: Knoblochtzer 1484

Description

Thanks to the popularity of this travelogue from the Holy Land and its author's accuracy, a fifth edition was printed in 1484, two years after its first publication. The Nuremberg patrician Hans VI Tucher (1428-1491) had travelled to the Holy Land in 1479/80 and then was personally involved in having the report he had written issued as an authorised edition (Nuremberg: Zeninger, 1482). The fifth edition, produced in the Strasbourg office of Heinrich Knoblochtzer, testifies to the national interest in Tucher's travel report. In the early days of book printing there were no copyrights. Knoblochtzer in Strasbourg reprinted the Augsburg first edition of 1482, which had displeased Hans Tucher due to numerous mistakes. The edition nevertheless has a special bibliophilic value, as it is provided with a woodcut depicting Tucher in the posture of the instructing pilgrim and author. The printer used an existing template here too: this was the cover woodcut included in the Nuremberg edition of the travelogue by Marco Polo (died 1324) from 1477. Knoblochtzer omitted the inscriptions around the original picture of the author but faithfully repeated the figure's posture and the tapestry with pomegranate pattern hanging in the background.