Cartography of Palestine

The cartography of the region of Palestine, also known as cartography of the Holy Land and cartography of the Land of Israel, is the creation, editing, processing and printing of maps of the region of Palestine from ancient times until the rise of modern surveying techniques. For several centuries during the Middle Ages it was the most prominent subject in all of cartography, and it has been described as an "obsessive subject of map art".

The history of the mapping of Palestine is dominated by two cartographic traditions: the biblical school and the classical school. The earliest surviving maps of the biblical tradition derive from the attempts of the early Church Fathers to identify and illustrate the primary locations mentioned in the Bible, and to provide maps for Christian pilgrimage. The earliest surviving maps of the classical tradition derive from the scientific and historical works of the Greco-Roman world; the European rediscovery of Ptolemy's works in the 1400s ended the domination of the biblical tradition. Many Graeco-Roman geographers described the Palestine region in their writings; however, there are no surviving pre-modern originals or copies of these maps – illustrations today of maps according to geographers such as Hecataeus, Herodotus or Eratosthenes are modern reconstructions. The earliest surviving classical maps of the region are Byzantine versions of Ptolemy's 4th Asia map. Cartographic history of Palestine thus begins with Ptolemy, whose work was based on that of the local geographer Marinus of Tyre..

The first lists of maps of the region were made in the late 19th century, by Titus Tobler in his 1867 ''Geographical Bibliography of Palestine'' and subsequently by Reinhold Röhricht in his 1890 ''Geographical Library of Palestine''. In a series of articles in the ''Journal of the German Association for the Study of Palestine'' between 1891 and 1895, Röhricht presented the first detailed analysis of maps of the region in the middle- and the late Middle Ages. They were followed in 1939-40 by Hans Fischer's ''History of the Cartography of Palestine''. This article lists maps that progressed the cartography of region before the rise of modern surveying techniques, showing how mapmaking and surveying improved and helped outsiders to better understand the geography of the area. Imaginary maps and copies of existing maps are excluded.

Notable maps of Palestine

Early maps (2nd–10th centuries)

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, 385 , , Jerome map , , Jerome and Eusebius , , The earliest known copy is from 1150, the "Tournai map of Asia", shown here. The map comes from a manuscript of Jerome's ''De situ et nominibus locorum Hebraeorum'', which Jerome states is a copy of Eusebius's Onomasticon. Jerome also explains that Eusebius composed a map which showed the divisions of the Twelve Tribes; no copy of this division has survived. , , ''no regional name shown''
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, 410 , , Notitia Dignitatum , , ''unknown'' , , Notitia Dignitatum of c. 410 AD showing Dux Palestinae, a military region of the Byzantine Empire. This 1436 manuscript by Peronet Lamy is the earliest known copy to survive complete; it was modelled after the lost "Codex Spirensis". , , ''Dux Palastinae''
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, 450 , , Tabula Peutingeriana , , ''unknown'' , , Thought to be the only surviving map of the Roman ''cursus publicus'', the state-run road network; the surviving map was created by a monk in Colmar in eastern France in 1265, is named after German antiquarian Konrad Peutinger, and is conserved at the Austrian National Library in Vienna. , , ''Palestina''
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, 560–565 , , Madaba Map , , unknown , , The earliest map of Palestine surviving in its original form, and the oldest known geographic floor mosaic in art history. The mosaic was discovered in 1884, but no research was carried out until 1896. It has been heavily used for the localisation and verification of sites in Byzantine Palaestina Prima. It is the earliest surviving map showing the divisions of the Twelve Tribes. , , Labels gr, οροι Αιγυπτου και Παλαιστινης, ''oroi Aigyptou kai Palaistinis'', the "border of Egypt and Palestine".
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, 776 , , Beatus map , , , , The first medieval Christian world map of relevance to the cartography of Palestine. This copy from 1060 is thought to be the closest to the original out the 14 surviving manuscripts. , , ''no regional name shown''
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, 952 , , Istakhri map , , Istakhri , , Drawn in 952 AD, copy from 1298. , , ''no regional name shown''
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, 995 , , Cotton map , , ''unknown'' , , Known as the "Anglo-Saxon" world map. The earliest known map of the world (rather than just the region) showing the divisions of the Twelve Tribes. Thought to be based on the map of Orosius, which is no longer extant. , , ''no regional name shown''
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Crusader maps (12th–14th centuries)

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, 1100s , , Ashburnham Libri map , , ''unknown'' , , Europe’s oldest surviving sheet map after the ninth-century Plan of Saint Gall. , , ''no regional name shown''
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, 1100s , , Tournai map , , ''unknown'' , , 12th century copy of a map of Asia may which accompanied a manuscript of ''De situ et nominibus locorum Hebraeorum'', a 4th-5th century work of Jerome. , , ''no regional name shown''
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, 1250 , , Oxford Outremer map , , , , Created in c.1250, thought to be by Matthew Paris , , The Kishon River has the following text along it: la, Iste torrens q iparvus est, dividit Siriam a palestinam, i estterram sactam q eest versus austrum et palestinam que est versus aquilonem, lit=This river, which is small, divides Syria from Palestine, that is, the Holy Land, which is to the south, and Palestine, which is to the North.
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, 1300 , , Earliest Burchard map , , Burchard of Mount Sion , , Considered to be the oldest known Burchard map.Baumgärtner, Ingrid.
Burchard of Mount Sion and the Holy Land
" Peregrinations: Journal of Medieval Art and Architecture 4, 1 (2013): 5-41. : "Burchard’s description, although little studied even today, is considered a key document that influenced the perception of Palestine in both text and image, in travel accounts and maps until far into the sixteenth century."
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, 1300s , , Later Burchard map , , Burchard of Mount Sion , , A later map attributed to Burchard., , ''no regional name shown''
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, 1321 , , Sanudo- Vesconte map , , , , Described by Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld as "the first non-Ptolemaic map of a definite country". Published in '' Liber Secretorum Fidelium Crucis'', a work intended to rekindle the spirit of the crusades. Considered the "first 'modern map' of Palestine" and "served as the basis for most maps of 'Modern Palestine'" throughout the following centuries. , , ''Terra Sancta''
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Notable 15th–18th century maps

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, 1648–1657 , , Celebi map , , , , This 1732 copy of the map by Ottoman geographer Kâtip Çelebi (1609–57) is from the first printed atlas in the Ottoman Empire, and represented the first detailed mapping of the Asian provinces of the empire. , , Shows the term ("Land of Palestine") extending vertically down the length of the Jordan River.
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, 1655 , , Heidmann map , , , , 1655 map from his ''Palestina siue Terra Sancta'' , , Palestina and Terre Sanctae
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, 1657 , , De la Rue map , , , , 1657 map , , Sourie and Terre Saincte.
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, 1714 , , Reland map , , , , 1714 map , , Palaestinae , ,
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, 1745 , , Pococke map , , , , 1745 map , , Holy Land and Syria , ,
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, 1769 , , Bachiene and Maas map , , Bachiene and Maas , , 1769 map , , Palaestina , ,
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, 1794 , , d'Anville map , , , , Published 1794, almost thirty years after his 1767 map of Biblical Palestine., , Palestina
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Notable 19th century maps

Modern cartography

* Commons:Maps of Palestine from the German Vermessungsabteilung (1918), and Gottlieb Schumacher
* Survey of Palestine (1920-48)
* Survey of Israel (1948 onwards)

Biblical / imaginary maps

* John Speed map of Canaan
* Nolin map

See also

* Cartography of Jerusalem
* Travelogues of Palestine

References

Bibliography

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*Hopkins, I. W. J. �
Nineteenth-Century Maps of Palestine: Dual-Purpose Historical Evidence
” Imago Mundi, vol. 22, 1968, pp. 30–36. JSTOR,
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External links

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* Google Arts & Culture
Maps of the Holy Land and Jerusalem

{{Cartography topics

Maps of Palestine (region)
Maps of Israel
Palestine
Cartography by country