Onomasticum Veteris Testamenti sive Tractatus Philologicus [“Lexicon of the Old Testament with Philological Treatise.”]

SIMONIS, JOHANN

Halle,Impensis Orphanotrophei, 1741

1741

Title in red and black. Latin interspersed with Hebrew, Arabic, Ethiopic and Greek. Engraved frontispiece featuring Hebrew map of the Land of Israel with place-names and divisions by tribe captioned in Hebrew, covered by a grape-vine, all within ornate frame.

Laor 730.

THE CELEBRATED “GRAPE-VINE MAP” OF THE HOLY LAND. This is one of just a handful of pre-19th century Holy Land maps captioned in Hebrew. Its epithet derives from the fact that the Land is covered by a grape-vine, a depiction of Psalms chap. 80, vs. 9-12: “You uprooted a vine from Egypt; You drove out nations and planted it. You cleared a place before it; It took root and filled the land. Mountains were covered by its shade, and its branches were great cedars. It sent forth its branches until the sea, and to the river its tender shoots.” The grape-vine is thus an allusion to the People of Israel, their exodus from Egypt, and their conquest of the Land. “The vine is a symbol of fertility according to the Prophet Jeremiah 31:5… Although the map is comparatively small in size and compact in execution, much effort was made by its unknown engraver to include all significant places noted in the Old Testament”. Wajntraub, Hebrew Maps of the Holy Land p. 67.