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An Attractive “Daniel’s Dream” World Map
World/ Cartographic Curiosity.
SOLIS, Virgil [Frankfurt au Main, c. 1560-1662]
Untitled Woodcut World Map.
4 5/8 x 6 inches
Mounted on heavy paper; excellent condition.
One of the more attractive renditions, with a fine Mannerist border, of the so-called Daniel’s Dream Map, also known as the Wittenberg World Map. The dream embodied in the map is that of the fifth century B. C. prophet Daniel, who envisioned the fate of history’s great empires as personified by various beasts depicted on the map. In 1529 and 1530, in commentaries by Martin Luther and others, the map was used both as an emblematic warning of Turkish conquest of the west and a foretelling of their defeat. In this period of great anxiety with Turkish armies out just outside of Vienna, Luther and others reached deeply into the Bible to extract something that would restore hope by foreshadowing the eventual victory of Christendom.
Gallner in his excellent and thorough online study (see below) of the map cites its first appearance as being in pamphlet 1529. The first entry for the map in Shirley is not until 1530, though he states it could have first come out in 1529. Both versions were published by Hans Lufft. The edition of the map offered here conforms in its map portion to Gallner, no. 7, block 1; its decorative border differs slightly from the example cited by Gallner. Most examples of the block date from the 1560’s, though there is one that is dated 1662.
http://www.daniels-dream-map.com/index.htm Version 7, Block 1; cf. Shirley 65 (A). |
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