Description
The earliest known Jewish pictorial map of Eretz Israel is a woodcut that shows the Exodus and the wanderings of the Israelites into Canaan (the only known copy is preserved in the Zentralbibliothek in Zürich). A long text in Hebrew that is written on the map's right-hand side gives evidence to its production in Mantua in ca. 1560. The title of this text — the first verse of Numbers 33 ("These are the journeys of the children of Israel, which went forth out of the land of Egypt") — and some quotations from Numbers 34 that are included in the map associate this map with these two biblical chapters, which concisely describe the journey of the Israelites in the desert and define the borders of the Promised Land. Furthermore, a reference given in the long text to the mapmakers' specific source — two exegetical drawings of Canaan that Rashi made for his commentary on Numbers 33 and 34 — associates the map not only with the biblical description of Numbers 33–34 but also with Jewish exegesis on these two chapters. Yet, some written/visual motifs that are included in the map and which have no reference in the biblical description or in Rashi's exegetical imagery turn the biblical topography into an emblem of salvation.
The Genealogy of the Patriarchs (Yiḥus ha-Avot) is a Jewish Palestinian list of holy places that was composed by an anonymous writer towards the end of the 15th century especially for Jewish pilgrims. It records the Land-of-Israel tradition of holy places in a consistent geographical order from south to north that creates a journey from Hebron to the Galilee; it ends with a list of some Jewish holy places outside the land of Israel. In the sixteenth century the text was copied on long scrolls and was attached by illustrations of the holy places. In this form it was no longer intended for pilgrims; it became a visual representation that conceptualized topography in terms of holiness and offered its viewers with a contemplative movement in the sacred topography. Significantly, like the map conceived in Mantua, this illustrated representation included some pictorial motifs that endowed the sacred topography with meanings of salvation.
Both types of imagery call to question the way in which the biblical topography was conceptualized by Jews in the sixteenth century and the role they played in constructing Jewish identity at the time.
Start Date
16-8-2018 2:00 PM
End Date
16-8-2018 3:00 PM
Included in
Cultural History Commons, European History Commons, History of Religion Commons, Jewish Studies Commons, Social History Commons
The Biblical Space and Jewish Identity
The earliest known Jewish pictorial map of Eretz Israel is a woodcut that shows the Exodus and the wanderings of the Israelites into Canaan (the only known copy is preserved in the Zentralbibliothek in Zürich). A long text in Hebrew that is written on the map's right-hand side gives evidence to its production in Mantua in ca. 1560. The title of this text — the first verse of Numbers 33 ("These are the journeys of the children of Israel, which went forth out of the land of Egypt") — and some quotations from Numbers 34 that are included in the map associate this map with these two biblical chapters, which concisely describe the journey of the Israelites in the desert and define the borders of the Promised Land. Furthermore, a reference given in the long text to the mapmakers' specific source — two exegetical drawings of Canaan that Rashi made for his commentary on Numbers 33 and 34 — associates the map not only with the biblical description of Numbers 33–34 but also with Jewish exegesis on these two chapters. Yet, some written/visual motifs that are included in the map and which have no reference in the biblical description or in Rashi's exegetical imagery turn the biblical topography into an emblem of salvation.
The Genealogy of the Patriarchs (Yiḥus ha-Avot) is a Jewish Palestinian list of holy places that was composed by an anonymous writer towards the end of the 15th century especially for Jewish pilgrims. It records the Land-of-Israel tradition of holy places in a consistent geographical order from south to north that creates a journey from Hebron to the Galilee; it ends with a list of some Jewish holy places outside the land of Israel. In the sixteenth century the text was copied on long scrolls and was attached by illustrations of the holy places. In this form it was no longer intended for pilgrims; it became a visual representation that conceptualized topography in terms of holiness and offered its viewers with a contemplative movement in the sacred topography. Significantly, like the map conceived in Mantua, this illustrated representation included some pictorial motifs that endowed the sacred topography with meanings of salvation.
Both types of imagery call to question the way in which the biblical topography was conceptualized by Jews in the sixteenth century and the role they played in constructing Jewish identity at the time.
