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Holy Land in Maps
02 The history of the mapping of the Holy Land epitomizes the history of cartography itself. Situated at the crossroads of Africa, Asia, and Europe, the Holy Land has been the focus of intense interest for countless generations; under its various names--Canaan, The Promised Land, Palestine, or Terra Sancta--it evinces the longest unbroken sequence of mapping in the world.
Two principal cartographic traditions dominate this fascinating the religious one, based primarily on the Bible and its exegeses; and the classical tradition, represented by Ptolemy, which laid the foundations of modern cartography.
The present volume brings together for the first time an historical panorama of these from a 6th-century mosaic from Jordan; through early Hebrew, Christian, and Islamic maps; to maps of the recent past. We see the 13th-century Hereford World Map, with Jerusalem at its center, and the 14th-century Catalan Atlas, drawn on vellum. Anonymous Czech and Italian maps of the 16th century are followed by German, Netherlandish, British, and French maps from the Age of Enlightenment. We arrive ultimately at cartographic representations of the 19th and 20th centuries, culminating in the advent of high-tech satellite imaging. These graphic representations manifest the geographical and political changes that have marked this region over the centuries, suggesting at one time physical realities, and at another persistence of imagination in its creative shaping of the world. Evidenced throughout, Holy Land in Maps is a testament to the painstaking craftsmanship and often delicate beauty that is a hallmark of the mapmaker's discipline at its best.
The history of the mapping of the Holy Land epitomizes the history of cartography itself. Situated at the crossroads of Africa, Asia, and Europe, the Holy Land has been the focus of intense interest for countless generations; under its various names--Canaan, The Promised Land, Palestine, or Terra Sancta--it evinces the longest unbroken sequence of mapping in the world.
Two principal cartographic traditions dominate this fascinating the religious one, based primarily on the Bible and its exegeses; and the classical tradition, represented by Ptolemy, which laid the foundations of modern cartography.
The present volume brings together for the first time an historical panorama of these from a 6th-century mosaic from Jordan; through early Hebrew, Christian, and Islamic maps; to maps of the recent past. We see the 13th-century Hereford World Map, with Jerusalem at its center, and the 14th-century Catalan Atlas, drawn on vellum. Anonymous Czech and Italian maps of the 16th century are followed by German, Netherlandish, British, and French maps from the Age of Enlightenment. We arrive ultimately at cartographic representations of the 19th and 20th centuries, culminating in the advent of high-tech satellite imaging. These graphic representations manifest the geographical and political changes that have marked this region over the centuries, suggesting at one time physical realities, and at another persistence of imagination in its creative shaping of the world. Evidenced throughout, Holy Land in Maps is a testament to the painstaking craftsmanship and often delicate beauty that is a hallmark of the mapmaker's discipline at its best.
Two principal cartographic traditions dominate this fascinating the religious one, based primarily on the Bible and its exegeses; and the classical tradition, represented by Ptolemy, which laid the foundations of modern cartography.
The present volume brings together for the first time an historical panorama of these from a 6th-century mosaic from Jordan; through early Hebrew, Christian, and Islamic maps; to maps of the recent past. We see the 13th-century Hereford World Map, with Jerusalem at its center, and the 14th-century Catalan Atlas, drawn on vellum. Anonymous Czech and Italian maps of the 16th century are followed by German, Netherlandish, British, and French maps from the Age of Enlightenment. We arrive ultimately at cartographic representations of the 19th and 20th centuries, culminating in the advent of high-tech satellite imaging. These graphic representations manifest the geographical and political changes that have marked this region over the centuries, suggesting at one time physical realities, and at another persistence of imagination in its creative shaping of the world. Evidenced throughout, Holy Land in Maps is a testament to the painstaking craftsmanship and often delicate beauty that is a hallmark of the mapmaker's discipline at its best.
The history of the mapping of the Holy Land epitomizes the history of cartography itself. Situated at the crossroads of Africa, Asia, and Europe, the Holy Land has been the focus of intense interest for countless generations; under its various names--Canaan, The Promised Land, Palestine, or Terra Sancta--it evinces the longest unbroken sequence of mapping in the world.
Two principal cartographic traditions dominate this fascinating the religious one, based primarily on the Bible and its exegeses; and the classical tradition, represented by Ptolemy, which laid the foundations of modern cartography.
The present volume brings together for the first time an historical panorama of these from a 6th-century mosaic from Jordan; through early Hebrew, Christian, and Islamic maps; to maps of the recent past. We see the 13th-century Hereford World Map, with Jerusalem at its center, and the 14th-century Catalan Atlas, drawn on vellum. Anonymous Czech and Italian maps of the 16th century are followed by German, Netherlandish, British, and French maps from the Age of Enlightenment. We arrive ultimately at cartographic representations of the 19th and 20th centuries, culminating in the advent of high-tech satellite imaging. These graphic representations manifest the geographical and political changes that have marked this region over the centuries, suggesting at one time physical realities, and at another persistence of imagination in its creative shaping of the world. Evidenced throughout, Holy Land in Maps is a testament to the painstaking craftsmanship and often delicate beauty that is a hallmark of the mapmaker's discipline at its best.
164 pages, Hardcover
First published December 7, 2001
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May 8, 2020
So apparently this book is from the Israel Museum in Jerusalem to accompany the 2001 exhibition On the Map: Cartographic Images of the Holy Land. I was not in any way aware of this, I just picked it up for three bucks at the mill markets in Daylesford earlier this year, thinking it looked good and was a reasonable price. (Side note: I love finding hidden gems in second-hand book shops.) Not sure why, but as I was reading this it made me think of when I visited the Musée de Cluny (which I would highly recommend) and saw the La Dame à la Licorne exhibit, so that was nice. Anyway, I've never been to Israel and I don't know a whole lot about it, except for some of Netanyahu's politics, the immovable ladder on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and anything I gathered from that Simpsons episode. I'll be honest and say I'd never seen a map of Jerusalem before reading this, but I have perused a number of atlases and other geography books. A lot of old maps look the same and after you've seen a few, it feels like you've seen them all, but in Holy Land there were some really distinctive ones that I'm now pretty partial to. There's some good maps and information in here, but, admittedly, the history of maps of Israel is a very niche interest and I wasn't super engaged the whole time I was reading it. I would love to visit Israel and I think if I had have picked this up from the Israel Museum myself I probably would have been more into it. It is a worthwhile read if you're into religious history, cartography and geography, because while it is a coffee table book, it still delivers that sweet, sweet knowledge that we all crave. Israel is definitely a very geographically and politically unique country that I feel warrants more exploration on my part, but at this time in my life, I think I've seen enough ancient maps of it.
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