Jerusalem.

£12,500 · Offered by Shapero Rare Books

An exceptionally fine impression of Hollar's panorama of Jerusalem. Wenceslaus Hollar contributed engraved plates to numerous Bibles, showing religious and ancient artefacts, scenes, views, plans and maps. Many of these were drawn after Juan Batista Villalpando, whose seminal work on the Holy Land at the beginning of the seventeenth century influenced generations of scholars, architects and artists. Although Villalpando was accused of heresy for misinterpreting scripture, eventually being found innocent by the Spanish Inquisition, his Biblical cartography and imagery had a great impact on the architecture and construction of later monasteries, churches and even wider urban spaces. The main image is a magnificent view of Jerusalem, encompassing the great city walls, the countless small and large buildings within it, and the surrounding hills. The river valley in the foreground is cultivated with trees and fields, while within the walls the city appears to be constructed according to a grid-like system, dominated by the Temple atop Mount Moriah at the centre of the view. Hollar included a numerical key in the upper right-hand corner of his plan to identify Jerusalem's various structures, spaces and sites, which are further examined in an aerial inset plan in the opposite corner. Oriented to the west, the inset plan shows the entirety of the city as well as those parts of the surrounding area that contained sites and buildings of religious or historic importance. In fact, the nu

• Binding: Hardcover

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