1565 Camocio / Wissenbourg Map of the Holy Land, with the Peregrination

This is an extremely rare, separately-issued 1565 map of the Holy Land, engraved and published by Giovanni Camocio. It is among a handful of maps based on the unobtainable 1538 map of Wolfgang Wissenburg, all rare, and one of the earliest printed maps to illustrate the path of the Exodus and to present in detail the geography of the Bible. The engraving captures the vivid imagery of its model, pictorially presenting the deserts and mountains of the Holy Land whilst marking out the stations of the Exodus (the itinerary given in Numbers 33.) Beyond its fascinating content and great rarity, this copperplate engraving presents itself in beautiful condition, with a bold, sharp strike and paper of a warm luminosity.

A Closer Look

Following the model of the Wissenburg and its other progeny, Camocio's north-oriented map of the Holy Land depicts the region along the Mediterranean coast from the Nile River Delta north to Byblos, Lebanon. The northwestern quadrant is filled with the neatly-stippled Mediterranean Sea (and a list of Biblical place names, with their ancient and modern variations.) At the southern extreme are the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba (Elaniticus Sinus); the eastern limits include part of Arabia in the north.

Picturing Biblical History

Sixteenth-century European scholars and mapmakers were less concerned with contemporaneous Palestine than they were in 'the Holy Land' as a frame for Scripture. Few were able to physically pilgrimage to the Holy Land, so maps such as this served as surrogate illustrations of Biblical lands and events. The story most prominently depicted on this map, for example, is the Exodus, tracing the route of the Israelites from the Raamses district of Egypt to the crossing of the Red Sea and through the Stations of the Exodus ending at number 41, the Abarim Mountains overlooking the Plains of Moab. From station to station, the stops of the Israelites are presented as great military camps. Along the route, notable events are marked. The pillars of fire leading the way out of Egypt are pictured; the chariot of the hapless Pharaoh is pictured sinking in the Red Sea; a great fire can be seen atop Mount Sinai; the Tomb of Miriam can be spied. Other tracks, too, can be seen: the Israelites traveling from Bersheba, Gerar, and Zielag, and traveling into Egypt in the first place. There, they can be seen at their labors. Leading off the east edge of the map are lines indicating the direction and distances not found within the limits of the map, including Babylon, Persia, and Niniveh. Cities are marked and shown pictorially, most prominently Jerusalem at center. Sodom and Gomorrah are placed, in flames, in the Dead Sea. The site of the ruins of Petra is also marked. Mountains are placed and pictured imaginatively. Throughout the engraving is embellished with horses, camels, and flocks of sheep with their shepherds; spaces that otherwise might be blank are decorated with trees.

A Rarity in a Lineage of Rarities

The genesis of this map - Wolfgang Wissenburg's 1538 eight-sheet woodcut - exists in a single copy. Wissenburg was correct in the demand for a map dramatically picturing Biblical history, as is evidenced by the proliferation of copies of the work, particularly in Italy. Matteo Pagano produced a large woodcut edition in 1546 in Venice (one copy survives); two copies of Giovanni Vavassore's 1550 woodcut survive. The 1557 version printed in Rome by Giovanni Micheli under his nickname 'Della Gatta' appears in more institutions but has only four price records in the past 40 years. Less scarce, the Venice edition of the 1563 Ferrando Bertelli appears in some 20 institutional collections. The present map, Camocio's 1565 edition, is the scarcest of the copperplate examples of this map, surviving in only four institutions and never having been publicly cataloged or put to auction.

Publication History and Census

Extremely rare. There are no examples cataloged in OCLC; Bifolco and Ronca identify only four examples in institutional collections. We see no examples of this map in catalogs or auction records; for comparison, Bertelli's iteration of this map has appeared in the price record four times in the past 50 years.