BERDINI, Vincenzo.

An excellent, clean copy of the first edition of this important, first-hand account of the history of ancient and modern Palestine. The Franciscan Vincenzo Berdini was General Commissary for the Holy Land from 1615, seeking to provide reliable historical information to Franciscan missionaries. Part I begins with a historical and geographical overview of Palestine from the first century AD, with a description of the main cities and tribes, the Holy Land and the various names used for Jerusalem, a description of the city, and notes on the lives of the Patriarchs. Part II provides a historical and geographical context to several mainly scriptural ‘mysteries’, e.g., the location of the adoration of the Magi, of various miracles, Christ’s entry into Jerusalem, etc., as well as the original location of the Holy House of Loreto and the various monasteries of the saints. Part III is the most innovative, based on Berdini’s witness accounts during his stay in Palestine, with a focus on the recent history of the Franciscans as guardians of the Holy Sepulchre, including sundry papal bulls facilitating their missions in the Levant, privileges granted by the Vatican in the Holy Land, and ways in which they survive without official funding. There follow very interesting observations on the various communities, with their customs and ceremonies, inhabiting Palestine at the time: i.e., the Greeks, ‘Latins’, Georgians, Maronites, Armenians, Jacobites, Syrians and Abyssines. In particular, the section on the Maronites, here separated from the Jacobites whose rite was similar, includes a description of their lives on Mount Lebanon and the relics found in their churches. The sections on the Jacobites also explains that their community included several Egyptian Copts from Cairo, with a near identical rite, who spoke Arabic but wrote in a different alphabet. The final part is devoted to the ways in which all these ‘nations’ cohabited in Palestine, and to a collection of orations and hymns sung during religious ceremonies, with texts and a description of how they are sung, where and on which occasions. These include orations for pilgrims to Jerusalem, for various shrines, and parts of Jerusalem, or during Holy Week. An important work for the history of early modern Palestine and Catholic missions in the Holy Land.