BENEDICTUS ARIAS MONTANUS. [Hebrew Map of the World]. Hebrew and Latin captions. Extracted from Volume VIII of Plantin's Polyglot Sacrorum Bibliorum, Antwerp, 1571 (Darlow & Moule 1422). From the Cassuto Collection.

(MAP).

This world map is divided into two globes, as it were, of the Old and New World. Four cherubs blow the four winds and the seas abound in mythic creatures. Genealogical charts provide the descendants of Biblical Noah's three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth, with designations in Hebrew and Latin. Montanus (1527-1598) was a Spanish priest and Bible scholar. King Philip II of Spain appointed him Director of the Escorial Library and Editor-in-Chief of the Polyglot Bible printed by Christopher Plantin in Antwerp. See E. & G. Wajntraub, Hebrew Maps of the Holy Land, No.12: “The first Hebrew map to portray Australia.”