1599 Hans Lufft Apolalyptic Map of the World (Daniel's Dream Map)

This is a bold, untrimmed strike of Hans Lufft's Wittenberg world map, also known the 'Daniel's Dream Map.' This woodcut illustrates the visions of the prophet Daniel, framed in a rudimentary map of Europe, Asia, and Africa. In Daniel's apocalyptic visions, the grim fates of the world's empires were revealed allegorically in the form of the beast depicted on the map.

The Scourge

The earliest version of this map appeared in Martin Luther's 1530 pamphlet Eine Heerpriedigt wider den Turcken, in which Luther proposed the advent of Turkish victories in the west as a prelude Daniel's revelations of the end of the world. Accordingly, amongst the monsters presented here is an army in western Asia bristling with spears - the Turkish armies threatening Vienna.

The Geography

As a world map, Lufft's composition was not a state-of-the-art representation of European cosmography. Instead, it presents the three parts of the old world without any reference to the fourth - America - that had already by then been appearing in print. Africa, Asia, and Europe are all named, but the continents lack any city detail. Africa displays the Ptolemaic form of the Nile, but the form of the African continent and that of South Asia reflects a late-fifteenth-century awareness of the practicality of sailing from Europe to India. The so-called 'Dragon's tail' extending southwards from China recalls the form appearing on the 1513 Waldseemüller map and those derived from it. Four distinctive wind-heads mark the cardinal points of the compass.

Publication History and Census

The present example conforms to the second version of the map, in its fourth block. It was included in the 1599 Wittemberg Bible, Die Propheten alle deudsch, published by Lorenz Säuberlich. In its various editions, this work is well represented in institutional collections. Despite only three separate examples in various states being cataloged in OCLC, the map does appear on the market from time to time.