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Cartographica Helvetica


Summary

Arthur Dürst:

The rediscovery of the c. 1515 Holy Land map by Lucas Cranach the Elder

Cartographica Helvetica 3 (1991) 22–27

Summary:

In memory of the pilgrim voyage of Frederik the Wise to Jerusalem in 1493, Lucas Cranach the Elder sketched a large map of the Holy Land in 1515. Because of its size, the map had to be cut into several woodblocks. Up to 1979, only two segments of the map were known.

In 1524 the Froschauer publishing house in Zurich printed a Bible with an enclosed map of the Holy Land. Although the map is a reversed-reading and reduced copy of the one drawn by Lucas Cranach, the present author discovered the resemblance of the two maps in 1979 and was able to show the extent of the complete, yet lost original map.

In 1981, Eran Laor was able to purchase from the Teddy Kollek Collection a print of the map for his library and to identify it with the author's help. Therefore, the Eran Laor Map Collection of the Hebrew National and University Library, Jerusalem, owns the only known almost complete print of this very interesting map of the Holy Land.


Bibliographic note

  • The author dedicates this article to the memory of Eran Laor (1900–1990).

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