The woodcut map of the Holy Land from the ‘Mer de Hystoires’

A rare map of the Holy Land, one of two maps in 'La Mer Des Hystoires', a French edition of 'Rudimentum Novitorum', first published in 1475. Orientated with north to the left, it extends from Damascus and Sidon in the north to Egypt and the Red Sea, with Jerusalem prominent in the centre. It is decorated with eight wind-heads and vignette scenes including Moses receiving the Ten Commandments, Pharaoh drowning in the Red Sea and the Crucifixion. The map was drawn by Lucas Brandis de Schass, based on information from Burchard of Mt Sion, a Dominican friar who made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the 13th century. The 1475 original block is described by Nebenzahl as 'the first regional map (arguably the first map) ever printed', being two years before the first printed editon of Ptolemy..