Ancient Book Art - Rudimentum Novitiorum

Too cool - from a book published in 1475.

This is the book's world map - - - places are represented by hills and circled by an ocean sea.  I spoke to a cartographer historian once and she told me fascinating stories about how representational early maps were - how they weren't used to navigate or find places and they didn't use scale, but instead were symbolic of religious and political hierarchy.
More after the jump

Here's a genealogical tree for Noah.
From BibliOdyssey:

'Rudimentum Novitiorum' (Handbook for Beginners) was first published in Lübeck in 1475. It is an encyclopaedic world history based on medieval theology "derived from the Bible, the Church Fathers, pagan mythology and compilations such as that of Vincent of Beauvais, offering the basics of historical knowledge to young clerics. For the chronological arrangement use has been made of genealogical charts which are illustrated with portraits and scenes, including the first printed map of the world."

The author of the original incunabulum remains anonymous and the work achieved a wider popularity after it was translated into French (as: 'La Mer des Histoires'; The Sea of Stories) and published by Pierre Le Rouge and Guillaume le Bret in 1488/1491. Seven subsequent folio editions were released before 1555.

- rick, loving old books.

Comments

[Cherise]

Very cool! Love it.

[Cele]

Love the maps, very kewl. When I was in high school I (very briefly) considered a career in commercial arts, I loved to draw monograms, that L is stunning.

When I looked at the Noah lineage my first thougth was, "There's a goat in his family? Father, or Grandfather?"

perverse Sunday morning I suspect.