Innovations
The Sanctae Peregrinationes, or the Peregrinatio in Terram Sanctam, was the first printed illustrated travel-book, and marked a leap forward for book illustration generally. It featured five large fold-out woodcuts, the first ever seen in the West, including a spectacular five-foot-long (1600 x 300 mm) woodcut panoramic view of Venice, where the pilgrims had stayed for three weeks. The book also contained a three-block map of Palestine and Egypt, centred on a large view of Jerusalem, and panoramas of five other cities: Iraklion, Modon, Rhodes, Corfu and Parenzo. There were also studies of Near Eastern costume, and an Arabic alphabet - also the first in print . Pictures of animals seen on the journey, including a crocodile, camel, and unicorn, were also included.
The colophon of the book is a lively coat-of-arms of the current Archbishop of Mainz, which includes the first cross-hatching in woodcut.
Read more about this topic: Erhard Reuwich
Famous quotes containing the word innovations:
“Great innovations should not be forced on slender majorities.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“By such innovations are languages enriched, when the words are adopted by the multitude, and naturalized by custom.”
—Miguel De Cervantes (1547–1616)