1581 / 1597 Bunting City Plan of Jerusalem

A Most Unique Early Map of Jerusalem.

This is Heinrich Bünting's 1581 bird's-eye view of the Holy City of Jerusalem. Despite its schematic appearance, the plan was presented to Bünting's readers as depicting the city as being drawn as it was actually laid out - 'in Grundt gelegt und eigentlich abgemahlet'. This fascinating view appeared in Bünting's Itinerarium Sacrae, the first and for many years the only complete work of biblical geography. As such, this map's representation of Jerusalem would be for many years the armchair pilgrim's best view of the Holy City.

A Closer Look

The city is presented as if in a bird's-eye view, oriented to the west (the cardinal directions are given at each side of the woodcut.) Bünting's work is derived from Biblical descriptions, and the reports of 1st-century Roman historian Flavius Josephus: for example, the depiction of the city as a square comes from Josephus' description of Jerusalem as 'four-square.' Within that framework, Biblical landmarks are placed within the city such as the Temple of Solomon, the palace of King David on Mount Sion, Herod's palace, and so forth. In the distance, the town of Bethlehem can be seen and is named. Directly to the west of Jerusalem, Golgotha and its crosses is shown.

Publication History and Census

This map first appeared in Bünting's Itinerarium in 1581, and appeared in the work's many editions for the rest of the century. According to Laor, the block was used without change in its editions up to 1600, but with variations in the letterpress pagination. The present example conforms typographically to the 1597 Magdeburg edition.

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

Good. Mends to margin and centerfold; cropped to left and right with some loss to borders. Margins reinstated.

References

OCLC 234164725. Laor, E., Mapping of the Holy Land, #968B.