Erhard Reuwich

Erhard Reuwich (ca. 1445–ca. 1500) was a pioneering German artist and printmaker whose illustrations for the first printed travel book revolutionized European book illustration. Coming from a family of painters in Utrecht, with his father likely being Hildebrand Reuwich, Dean of the painters' guild in 1470, Erhard represented a new generation of artists who recognized printing's transformative potential. Beyond these sparse details, remarkably little biographical information about Reuwich has survived, making his artistic achievement all the more striking. In 1483–84, Reuwich accompanied Bernhard von Breydenbach, a wealthy canon of Mainz Cathedral, on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Breydenbach specifically brought Reuwich as a "skillful artist" to create accurate visual records of the journey's sights. The resulting collaboration, "Peregrinatio in Terram Sanctam," published in 1486, became a landmark in publishing history as the first printed illustrated travel book and marked a revolutionary leap forward for book illustration generally. Reuwich's technical innovations were extraordinary. He created five large fold-out woodcuts—the first ever seen in Western printing—including a spectacular panoramic view of Venice measuring five feet long (30 × 160 cm, or 1.62 meters when fully extended). His foldout map stretching from Damascus to Sudan featured the first topographically accurate view of Jerusalem. These achievements set new benchmarks for technical ambition and geographic accuracy in printed illustration. The book's commercial success was unprecedented, with thirteen reprints over three decades and translations into German, French, Dutch, and Spanish before 1500. Reuwich's legacy lies not in biographical detail but in his revolutionary expansion of what printed books could achieve.