(‘Hylacomylus’) about the year 1505, partly at the expense of Duke Rene of Lorraine, who also contributed the celebrated ‘Hydrographia’. or Admiral’s map. The modern maps were prepared by Waltzemuller and most of the copies—perhaps all—engraved as early as 1507.” But delays supervened, and it was not until 1513 that the rare print finally saw the light of publication.
THE PALESTINE MAPS
Few of the beautiful maps and designs of the Holy Land are of scientific or even historical significance, because they were not the product of actual cartography but of imagination and reconstruction gleaned from ancient literary sources such as the Scriptures, Josephus, Eusebius, and other writings, says Professor Samuel Klein, occupant of the Sol Rosenbloom Chair of Palestine Research at the Hebrew University. It is only in the later maps, such as one of 1835, that one finds evidence of accurate geographical and topographical knowledge, declares the professor.
Christian maps produced in Holland, Germany, England and France, and representing the perspective of those old cartographers sitting in their workrooms distant from the Holy Land, undoubtedly have had an influence upon Hebrew mapmakers; and a Hebrew map dating from 1694 in the Jewish National and Hebrew University Library archives shows how these conceptions were treated.
The twenty-four maps present a bewildering variety of cartographical ideas that were current about the Holy Land, under the dominion of “Ye Greate Turke.” Tabula ilineraria Patriarcharum . . . Amstelodami, apud Joannem Janssonium, is the result of such distant observation. Maps showing the tribal distribution of the Holy Land, Tribuum Ephraim, Beniamin, et dimidiae Manasse, pars maxima tribus Juda versus orientem, and Tribus Ruben et Gad, are three such specimens.
An “exast description by Georgius Hornius” was made at The Hague in 1741. Jansonius publishes in his “Theatrum terrae sanctae 1590” the Situsterrae promissionis, while Senor Robert in 1743 produces a “Carte de la Terre des Hebreux ou Israelites . . . dressee . . . sur les cartes et manuscrits des Srs Sanson” from Paris. Dom Auguste Calmet in 1730 has a similar map.
Of particular interest are the maps of Abraham Ortelius, Theatrum 1584, 1595, and 1601, which is represented by “Terra Sancta, a Petro Laicstain perlustrata, et . . . a Christiano Schrot in tabulam redacta.” An accurate description of Palestine was produced in 1725 by M. Seutatero, “Palaestinae accurata descriptio.” He lived from 1678-1756. The same cartographer had designed five years previously Jerusalem and its suburbs, “prout tempore Christi floruit.”
Valuable specimens are those of Joseph Nicholas de l’Isle, dated 1763, and “Judaea seu Palaestinia . . . in duodecim tribus divisa . . . collecta extabulis Guilielmo Sansony a Joh. Bap. Homanno,” probably dated 1717, and J. J. da Rubeis’ edition of Sanon’s and Vineolensi’s “Terra Sancta” made at Venice in 1783. Another tribal division of Palestine is a 1750 map (in Latin and French counterparts) of Jean-Christophe Harenburg. The most recent item in the collection, and probably the most accurate, is H. Berghaus’ “Karte von Syrien,” published by Gotha in 1835.
Mrs. Lindheim’s valuable collection will be an important nucleus that will serve in the Jewish National Library at Jerusalem as material for comparative purposes in outlining olden knowledge of the Holy Land in Christian states of Europe, and also in tracing the development of geographical ideas and cartographical skill during the past four centuries.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
