Relatione del santo viaggio di Gierusalemme, et delle cose occore in quello, Descritta dal R. P. F.Steffano Mantegazza Milanese, dell'ordine de Predicatori, In quel modo ch'egli lo scorse, & caminò gl'anni del Signore 1600. & 1601. (Con licenza de'Superiori.)

In Milano [Milan]: Appresso l'herede del quon. Pacifico Pontio, & Gio. Battista Piccaglia compagni, 1601. First edition. In later vellum, inked title on spine. Title page with woodcut printer's device. With woodcut head and tailpieces and initials throughout. Contemporary ownership inscription on title page. An old manicule in ink on K8r. Modern bookplate on inner front panel. Occasional light stains. Probably washed. Overall in very good condition.. First edition. In later vellum, inked title on spine. 266 [5] [1(blank)] p.

Extremely scarce first edition of this early Italian travelogue of Palestine through Egypt, Sinai, and the Greek islands.

An account of Steffano Mantegazza's travel to Jerusalem around 1600. Mantegazza traveled to Egypt, Sinai and the Greek islands of Zakynthos and Cephalonia. His work contains a detailed account of Alexandria, Cairo, and the Sinai. Although Mantegazza concentrates predominantly on natural history and religious sights he also includes an important report on the Beduin occupation between 1516 and 1518 of the Saint Catherine's Monastery, during the interregnum between the Mamluk and Ottoman rule.
Scarce, except for this one no other sales recorded by RBH. USTC lists only two copies in France (Bibliothèque Sainte Geneviève) and the UK (BL), in addition a copy held in Germany (BSB) and at Biblioteca Generale della Custodia di Terra Santa in Jerusalem.

Provenance: Offer-postcard by Libreria Antiquaria Finzi (Milan), to Nathan Shur (Tel Aviv) (ca. 1970). [Shur mentions Mategazza's book in his paper on the ancient manuscripts found at the Saint Catherine's Monastery.] Modern bookplate of Eliyahu HaCohen.

Not in Kalfatovic (only the 1616 second edition [no. 78])

Bibl.: Kalfatovic, M. R.: Nile Notes of a Howadji: A Bibliography of Travelers' Tales from Egypt, from the Earliest time to 1918. Metuchen, N.J., London: Scarecrow Press, 1992.; Schur, N.: St. Catherine's Monastery: When Was the Recently Discovered Cache of Ancient Manuscripts Hidden? In: The Biblical Archaeologist. Vol. 44, No. 3 (Summer, 1981), pp. 133-134.

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