Sale 2496 - Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books, December 13, 2018

80 c   (HOLY LAND.) Ortelius, Abraham. Terra Sancta. Double-page engraved map of the Holy Land. 18x23 inches sheet size, wide margins, French text on verso; hand-colored in outline; small closed tear at right margin, other minor edge soling, else quite nice. Van den Broecke 173.1 1587F97. Antwerp, 1587 [700/1,000] with : Adrichem, Christan van. Pharan Desertum, et Confinia eius cum Parte Aegypti. Engraved folding map from Adrichem’s “Theatrum Terrae Sanctae Et Biblicarum Historiarum”. 15x21 1 / 2 inches sheet size, ample margins; lightly toned, small rust spot. [Cologne, circa 1590]. 81 c   (HOLY LAND.) Plancius, Petrus; and Cloppenburg, Johannes. Tabula Geographica, in qua Israelitarum, ab Aegypto ad Kenahanaeam. Engraved folding map of Egypt, Israel and Jordan greatly decorated with Biblical vignettes. 15x19 1 / 2 inches sheet size, left and right margins shaved to the neatline, Dutch text on verso; original hand-color in full; light marginal soiling, lower margin split at centerfold, left and right folding wings with minor losses and reinforced on verso. [Leiden, 1609] [1,800/2,200] A beautiful decorative map by Flemish theologian and cartographer Petrus Plancius from an early Dutch Bible. Maps such as this were included to serve as a visual aid, offering readers a better understanding of the regions described in Biblical texts. The present result is no plain map, rather a complete work of art with the surrounding scenes representing events in the books of Exodus, Numbers and Deuteronomy telling stories of the life of Moses and the wandering of the Israelites from Egypt to the Promised Land. Their journey through the desert is delineated on the map, marked with 41 numbered points. The engraving was done by Pieter Bast (signed P bast F[ecit] in the second lowest left-hand panel scene). Laor 566. 81