1589/ 1597 Bünting Map of Africa

Distinctive Woodcut map of Africa.

This is Heinrich Bünting's 1589 map of the continent of Africa. This striking woodcut appeared in Bünting's Itinerarium Sacrae, the first and for many years the only complete work of biblical geography.

A Closer Look

While Bünting did not wrap his map of Africa in allegory, as he did with his Asia, Europe, and World maps, this is nevertheless a unique representation of the continent, tapering to a narrow point in the south. The pattern of rivers and major place names are modeled on those on the 1540 Africa map of Sebastian Münster, but these were necessarily distorted to fit the unusual outline of the continent as presented here. The ocean is engraved with distinctive wavy lines, and is decorated with a sailing ship, a merman, and what appears to be a swan. Cities marked on the map include Alexandria, Memphis, Cairo - and the Kingdom of the legendary Prester John.

Publication History and Census

This map is frequently found dated 1581, corresponding to the first Helmstadt edition of Bünting's Itinerarium. Scrutiny of editions of the work in institutional collections indicates that neither this map, nor the accompanying map of Asia, were introduced until either the 1587 or 1589 Magdeburg edition of the book. Separate examples of the map speculatively dated earlier often exhibit typographical features that correspond with examples printed sometimes well into the 17th century. The incorrect dating of these appears to be influenced by the cataloguing of Bünting's famous cloverleaf world map, which was included in the 1581 and 1582 Helmstadt editions. This example conforms to the 1597 state of the map noted in Betz. We see fourteen examples of the separate map in OCLC, in various states. The Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae appears in many editions in institutional collections.

Cartographer

Heinrich Bünting (1545 – 1606) was a Protestant pastor and theologian. He was born in Hanover, and studied theology at the University of Wittenberg. He earned his Master's degree in 1569. He remained in Wittenberg as a pastor there, before being appointed to that same position at Alt Calenberg, in the service of the Dukes of Saxony. The estate was dissolved when the marriage of the Duchess Sidona and Duke Eric the Younger foundered, and Bünting became pastor in Gronau in 1575. In Gronau, he wrote his two major works - the 1581 Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae, and the 1584 Brunswick and Lüneburg Chronicle. He produced a smaller work on Biblical coins and measures in 1582. He would briefly serve as superintendent in Goslar, but he would be dismissed as a result of theological differences. Stung, he returned to his hometown and changed to the less controversial profession of a beer brewer, until his death in 1606. The work for which he is best known, Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae, was the first complete summary of biblical geography. It remained in print in more than sixty editions, long after his death. Earlier editions contain some of the most distinctive and sought after maps, most notably his map of the world in the shape of a cloverleaf, and an allegorical map of Asia in the form of a Pegasus.   Further Details...

Source

Bünting, Heinrich, Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae, (Magdeburg) 1597.    

Condition

Very good. Evenly toned, with some text showthrough. Some marginal soiling. Five small filled wormholes with no loss.

References

OCLC 881458374. Rumsey 15301.007 (1589) Betz, R. The Mapping of Africa, 24.2; Norwich, O. Maps of Africa 17; Tooley, R. V. Guide to Maps of Africa no. 141, p. 34.