Acquired From: Gowrie Galleries
Colouring: Coloured
Condition: Very Good
Confirmed: 27/09/2024
Date Acquired: 23/12/2000
Dealers ID No.: M128 (STK1066.01)
Description: Between 1569 and 1572, Christophe Plantin produced his monumental eight-volume Biblia Sacra Hebraice, Chaldaice, Graece et Latine, commonly known as the Biblia Regia or Plantin Polyglot, under the patronage of King Philip II of Spain. At a time of intense religious and political tension in the Spanish Netherlands, Plantinwidely believed to hold Protestant sympathiesworked with great caution under the supervision of the Spanish humanist Benito Arias Montanus. The project occupied nearly four years, with the volumes appearing between 1569 and 1571 and the final components completed in early 1572.nThe concluding volume contains this world map, engraved under the direction of Montanus. Conceived as a visual counterpart to the theological aims of the work, it incorporates inscriptions in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin and reflects contemporary biblical geography alongside sixteenth-century conceptions of the world. The map illustrates the dispersion of the Twelve Tribes of Israel following the Flood, assigning their descendants to specific regions of the known world. This structure is reinforced through a system of alphabetical and numerical references identifying the genealogical lines of Noahs sonsShem, Ham, and Japhethpresenting the world as a divinely ordered landscape shaped by sacred history.nAccording to Darlow, the majority of copies containing the map were lost at sea enroute to Spain, making surviving examples particularly rare. The map is known in three distinct copperplates, the earliest of which survives in two states:nAntwerp, 1571 First copperplate, state 1 (the present example)nAntwerp, 1572 First copperplate, state 2Antwerp, after 1572 nAntwerp after 1572 Second copperplatenLondon, 1660 Third copperplate (View Record (#474))nIn the first state, the word Iektan appears at the end of the third line in the lower-left text panel. In the second state, gentes is added beneath Iektan. The second copperplate introduces more substantial changes: the wind-heads face different directions; there is less engraved sea below the Antarctic Circle; the date 1571 is repositioned onto its own line in the upper-left text panel; gentes appears on the same line as Ioktan (spelled Iektan in the first plate).
First published: Biblia Sacra Hebraice, Chaldaice, Graece et Latine Vol 8, Antwerp: Christopher Plantin, 1572
Image Size (cm): 52.5×31.0
Mapmaker: Montanus, Arias Benedict
Other states: Second, and third
Price: A29,110 plus gst
Primary Category: World
Purchase Reference: Inv. 43 (Hand written) Inv GST 3/43 Green paper
Rarity: R2 Very rare – one or two copies appear on the market
References: T. H Darlow and H. F Moule, Historical Catalogue of the Printed Editions of Holy Scripture (Kraus, 1963), 2, Part 1:912.
Shirley ID #: 125 Mapping the World
Technique: Copper Engraving
This state: 1572, Antwerp
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