Two Christian Pilgrims Sailed from Venice on the Agostino Contarini
Santo Brasca, an administrator and statesman in the Duchy of Milan under the Sforzas, mentions Jews in Jerusalem in 1480 CE.
Brasca's fellow voyager, Felix Fabri, a Swiss Dominican theologian, gives detailed descriptions of his pilgrimages to the Land in his writing “Wanderings in the Holy Land, Arabia, and Egypt”
Fabri writes:
“There are scattered throughout the city (referring to Jerusalem) many chapels of heretics [referring to Christian sects other than Roman Catholic], many Saracen mosques, JEWISH SYNAGOGUES, and Samaritan tabernacles… There are more than five hundred Jews, and more than a thousand Christians, of every sect and country; but the fewest of all are they of the Latin rite.”
Felix Fabri, Evagatorium in Terrae Sanctae, Arabiae et Egypti peregrinationem, manuscript, Ulm Stadtbibliothek, fol. 29r (digitized manuscript)
Overview
Santo Brasca and Felix Fabri describe their 1480 CE pilgrimage to Jerusalem, noting Jewish synagogues and a Jewish population of over 500 alongside diverse religious communities in the city.
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