Yoseph ben Yissachar. Yosef Da’ath [super-commentary to Rashi on the Pentateuch].

(ISRAEL, LAND OF).

Gershom Katz

Prague

1609

FIRST EDITION. Title within typographical border. Map of the Land of Israel together with other woodcut plates and text-illustrations striving to clarify apparent errors in Rashi’s commentary with the use of early manuscript texts.

Vinograd, Prague 168.

This important map of the Land of Israel is based on Mordechai Jaffe’s earlier effort that appeared in his Levushim (1590-1604). Here however, R. Joseph’s map is more clearly defined: the mountains are easily visible and the cities are shown by towers and decorated with flags - an altogether sophisticated representation. The details of the map were entirely based on information derived from the Bible and its commentaries, for, as E. & G. Wajntraub point out in their Hebrew Maps of the Holy Land (1992) pp.42-3, “it was not possible to draw eye-witness reports, and all geographical data is based on geographical knowledge of the Bible (only).” See Z. Vilnay, Hamapah Ha’ivrit shel Eretz Yisrael (1968) p. 15 (illustrated).