Lot 134: HOLY LAND & PALESTINE - SALAMANCA, ANTONIO (c.1500-1562). Tabula Moderna Terrae

HOLY LAND & PALESTINE - SALAMANCA, ANTONIO (c.1500-1562). Tabula Moderna Terrae Sanctae. Rome: Antonio Salamanca, 1548. Engraved map of the Holy Land, 263 x 541mm, on a Royal sheet, trimmed with original extended margins (Very minor hole in centre right of map.) Tooley:1939 no.433, Woodward:1996 watermark 238.

WISSENBURG, WOLFGANG (1496-1575).
Palestinae Terrae Sanctae descriptio. Rome: Francesco della Gatta, 1557. Engraved map of the Holy Land, 388 x 541mm, on a Royal sheet, trimmed with original extended margins. Karrow no.82/1.4, Tolley:1939 no.434, Woodward:1996 watermark 290.

Two very important and rare early engraved maps of the Holy Land. Salamanca's work is one of his earliest dated maps. It is a very handsome historical rendering of the region, depicting the territories of the Biblical Twelve Tribes of Israel, with the Mediterranean and the west oriented towards the lower portion of the map. Such maps of the Holy Land first became popular during The Reformation, as illustrations for Bibles and theological texts, consistent with that movement's aspiration to convey aspects of scripture to a wider audience. This is precisely the motive of Wolfgang Wissenburg, who was an early supporter of The Reformation and a professor of mathematics at the University of Basle. The present map is based on a large eight-sheet woodcut map of the Holy Land made by Wissenburg, published by Jacob Ziegler in 1538, that today survives in only one copy. (Karrow pp.587-588).
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