Old electroform sterling 925 world map in cloverleaf, Jerusalem in the center

Old electroform sterling 925 world map in cloverleaf, Jerusalem in the center
Old electroform sterling 925 world map in cloverleaf with Jerusalem in the center
AFTER HEINRICH BUNTING
MAKER’S MARK: MH – LOWER LEFT
SIZE OF MAP: 19.5 x 19.5 cm.
SIZE OF FRAME: 24 x 24 cm.
WEIGHT: 600 gr.
SMALL DENT ABOVE JERUSALEM
SMALL DAMAGES TO BLACK BACKGROUND UPPER LEFT
Heinrich Bunting (1545-1606) knew the world didn’t really look like this. There are
enough maps in his works (such as Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae) to
indicate he knew the continents had an irregular, and not a symbolic shape.
Yet he delighted in drawing other symbolic maps, examples of which can be
anthropomorphic (Europe as a virgin) or hippomorphic (Asia as a winged horse).
This particular map is a tribute to Buntings hometown Hanover,
as the text above the map indicates: Die ganze Welt in einem Kleberblatt
welches ist der Stadt Hannover meines lieben Vaterlandes Wapen (‘The Whole
World in a Cloverleaf, Which Is The Coat of Arms of Hannover, My Dear
Fatherland’).
The map shows a world divided into three parts (Europe, Asia and Africa), connected at a
single central point: Jerusalem. This is essentially still the
same symbolic map of the world as the one first devised by Saint Isidore in the
seventh century. Isidore’s ’T and O’-shaped map, itself inspired by Scripture,
influenced Christian European mapmaking up until the age of discovery.