Bünting cloverleaf map

Bunting clover leaf map

Bünting Map is an historic mapped illustration of the world which was drawn by the German Protestant pastor, theologist and cartographer Heinrich Bünting.

The map was published in his book Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae - "Travel through Holy Scripture" in 1581. Today the map is found within the Eran Laor maps collection in the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem. A mosaic model of the map is installed on the fence of Safra Square at the site of Jerusalem's city hall.

The map is a figurative illustration depicting the world via a clover shape as a symbolisation of the Christian Trinity and a component at the symbolisation of the German city Hanover, where Bünting was born. The city of Jerusalem is represented as the centre, surrounded by three central continents, with some more areas of the world being accordingly illustrated separately from the clover.

Description

The dimension of the map is 38 by 30 centimeters.

Jerusalem is illustrated as a circle at the counterpoint of the three continents of Asia, Europe and Africa which are illustrated as a three-leaved clover shapes, painted in three colours. The top-right leaf-shape coloured in green represents Asia, the top-left one coloured in red represents Europe, and the bottom one coloured in yellow represents Africa. The three continents include captions of their various countries and illustrations of some of their cities. Asia includes illustrations of nine cities, Europe includes one illustration of the Italian city Rome, and the continent of Africa includes illustrations of three cities with one being the Egyptian city Cairo.

The clover is surrounded by the ocean, with its surface including illustrations of sea creatures, monsters, and a ship. England, and Denmark as perhaps the tip of the entire Nordic countries, are represented as two island-shapes above Europe’s leaf, in front of its shore is France, and are at the top of the map. The Red Sea is illustrated between Asia and Africa, painted in red rather than the water’s natural blue colour. The continent of America is represented as a separated shape, coloured in green like Asia, at the bottom-left corner of the map, with the caption The new World, as it was a new discovered area for the Europeans back in the 16th century when the map was conceived.

References

• Jerusalem in Maps and Mirrors, from Byzantine Period Until the 19th Century, 1987, Nahar Books and Kinneret Zmora-Bitan Dvir publishers.

External links

• Information about the map at Eran Laor's Collection, The National Library of Israel website.
• Description of the map – Yale university, Under the title Asia Secunda Pars Terrae in Forma Pegasir. Die Gantze Welt in ein Kleberblat. Heinrich Bunting, c. 1590.