Christiaan Kruik van Adrichom

Christiaan Kruik van Adrichom, or Adrichem, Latinised as Christianus Crucius Adrichomius, was born into a noble family from Delft in the Netherlands. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1566, and led the Convent of St. Barbara in Delft, until he was expelled during the Reformation, after which he settled in Cologne.

Although Adrichom never actually made his own pilgrimage, he is now best remembered for his life’s work: an extensive history of the Holy Land, Theatrum Terrae Sanctae et Biblicarum Historiarum (Cologne, 1590), which he labored on for thirty years, and was eventually published posthumously. It includes a geography of Palestine, a description of Jerusalem, and the chronology of Adam up to the death of St John the Evangelist, and then beyond to 1585 when Christiaan Kruik van Adrichom died. Compiled from the works of Josephus, the Bible, and more modern authorities such as Bochart and Villalpandus, as well as from accounts of recent travelers, the accompanying map of Jerusalem remained the definitive layout of the city until archaeological discoveries during the nineteenth century.