John of Würzburg

Possibly the copyist or whoever added the description of John to the Tegernsee manuscript confused him with his friend, who is sometimes identified with Dietrich of Hohenburg, who was bishop of Würzburg in 1223–24.

[2] John's purpose in writing was to update the 7th-century description of the Holy Land, De locis sanctis, which he knew from the version edited by Bede, based on the construction projects that had taken place since the First Crusade.

[5] The text is structured around the life of Jesus and divided into seven sections highlighting his birth, baptism, passion, descent into Hell, resurrection, ascension and judgement.

[3] In his thirteenth chapter, he writes: Three days afterwards is the anniversary of noble Duke Godfrey [of Bouillon] of happy memory, the chief and leader of that holy expedition, who was born of a German family.

But although he is there honoured in this way for himself, yet the taking of the city is not credited to him with his Germans, who bore no small share in the toils of that expedition, but is attributed to the French alone.

The opening of John's Descriptio from the Tegernsee manuscript. It begins Johannes, Dei gratia in wirziburgensi ecclesia, id quod est, dilecto suo socio et domestico Dietrico salutem et supernae Jerusalem... ("John, who by the grace of God is that which he is in the church of Würzburg, wishes health and a sight of the heavenly Jerusalem to his beloved friend and follower Dietrich...") [ 1 ]