Burchard of Mt. Sion, Description of the Holy Land 1.3
created: This entry is taken from Description of the Holy Land 1.3 written by Burchard of
edition published: 2022-10-19-05:00
language: la; la
availability: Except for materials quoted from other sources, this entry is copyright 2022 by the contributors (Joseph L. Rife, et al.) and the Caesarea City and Port Exploration Project. It is licensed under the Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. Some texts quoted in this entry may be in the public domain in the United States. No copyright is asserted for these quotations. Some texts quoted in this entry may have copyright restrictions and are reused under Section 107 of the Copyright Act of (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)

https://caesarea-maritima.org/testimonia/202

Cesarea Palestine

, and

Cesarea maritima

are directly attested at Burchard of Mt. Sion, Description of the Holy Land 1.3. This passage was written ca. 1274-1285 CE possibly in Palestine. Burchard of Mt. Sion was a Dominican friar from Magdeburg in Lower Saxony who wrote the the most important description of the Holy Land from the 13th century. The earliest and longest account of his pilgrimage, which grew particularly popular during the 14th-18th centuries, described his journey from northern Germany to the Levant, where he stayed from 1274 to 1284, shortly before the fall of Acre, the last Crusader stronghold in the Holy Land, in 1291. The content of his description is based upon personal experience, research into ancient writings and earlier itineraries, and close study of scripture. In this passage near the beginning of his work, Burchard outlines the regional designations of Palestine, amalgamating Biblical, Roman, and contemporary conceptions of space.

Post istam quartam Syriam, scilicet Syriam Phenicis, sequitur Palestina, que Philistiim proprie nιιncupatur, quia tres sunt, ut sequitur, Palestine, que tamen omnes sunt Syrie magne partes. Prima Palestina est, cuius metropolis est Jerusalem, cum omnibus montanis suis usque ad mare mortuum et usque ad desertum et Cades Barne; secunda, cuius metropolis est Cesarea Palestine sive Cesarea maritima, cum tota terra Philistiim, incipiens a predicta Petra Incisa sive Castro Peregrinorum, et se extendens usque Basan contra austrum. Tercia est, cuius metropolis est Bethsan, sita sub monte Gelboe iuxta Iordanem. Hec quondam Scythopolis dicebatur. Ista Palestina dicitur proprie Galilea sive campus magnus Esdraelon.

[Laurent 1873]

After this fourth Syria, i.e., Syria of Phoenicia, comes Palestine, which should properly be called Philistim, because there are three Palestines as follows, but all three are parts of Greater Syria. Palestine I is that province whose capital is Jerusalem, together with all its mountainous country, as far as the Dead Sea and the desert and Kadesh Barnea. Palestine II is the one whose capital is Caesarea Palestinae or Caesarea Maritima, together with all the land of the Philistines, beginning at the aforementioned Petra Incisa or Pilgrim’s Castle, and reaching eastward to Bashan. Palestine III is the one whose capital is Beth Shan, located below Mount Gilboa next to the Jordan. This city was formerly called Scythopolis. This Palestine is properly called Galilee, or the great Plain of Esdraelon.

[Trans. J. L. Rife with ref. to Pringle 2018]

Works Cited

[...] 1.3 22
[...] 1.3 244

[Bashan

Beth Shean (Scythopolis)

Dead Sea

Galilee

Gilboa, Mount

Jerusalem

Jezreel, Plain of (Esdraelon)

Jordan River

Kadesh Barnea

Palestine

Petra Incisa or Pilgrim’s Castle

Syria Phoenice]

[Crusades

Geography

Government and Law

Medieval History

Roman History]