An ancient map of Jerusalem and the world from which it came

A famed map by 16th-century Dutch humanist Christian van Adrichem is a historical trek through culture, identity and spirituality.

By MOSHE DANN
Map of Jerusalem from the 16th century (photo credit: HEBREW UNIVERSITY)
Map of Jerusalem from the 16th century
(photo credit: HEBREW UNIVERSITY)
Have you seen it – in the dining room of the King David Hotel? It is a modern artist’s rendition of a very famous map. Every guest of the hotel has seen the map, but most (including hotel staff) have no idea of its importance.
The original map, drawn by Dutch theologian and humanist Christian Kruik van Adrichem (1533–1585), portrays an imagined Jerusalem at the time of Jesus, including the City of David and Mount Zion (Sion), Mount Moriah, and the 14 Stations of the Cross, the Via Dolorosa.
Van Adrichem’s map, however, and others like it, were not intended to be accurate or realistic, but for a historical journey.
Using familiar forms of architecture and dress to give a sense of relevance and cultural identity, these maps sought to tell us what is important. In that sense, they are also spiritual guides.
Van Adrichem’s map, therefore, included some fascinating details that illuminate Jewish history – but which don’t appear in the hotel’s map.
Like most Europeans who made maps depicting Jerusalem, van Adrichem drew a bridge from the Mercy/Golden Gate, on the eastern side of the Temple Mount, across the Kidron Valley to the Mount of Olives.
No doubt a bridge once existed, since it was an essential part of a ritual that took place when there was a Temple on Har Habayit, Mount Moriah. Commanded in the Torah (Numbers 19), the ritual is described in Mishna Para, the burning of the red heifer, which is read in the yotzer (addition) for this parasha two weeks before Passover.
“From the High Priest’s personal wealth, a bridge was built for the cow, each arch above a lower pier… His aides accompanied him to the Mount of Olives.”
Although artists who drew maps hundreds of years ago could not have seen a bridge, or any remnant of one, they knew there had to be one because of the Mishna. Since the Mount of Olives was a cemetery, which kohanim are forbidden to enter, the only way to perform the ceremony was to build a bridge over the area.
Another example of how Jewish texts influenced Renaissance mapmakers was the original location of ancient Jerusalem, the City of David, south of the Old City and outside its current walls. Classical sources like Josephus write about it, but it is also mentioned in a Jewish prayer that is said on Mondays at the end of the morning service: Mount Zion, the Temple Mount, is “north of the king’s city,” King David’s City, Jerusalem.
Van Adrichem was also careful to place Golgotha/ Calvary, the site of Jesus’s crucifixion and burial cave, which is inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, inside the current walls of the Old City and outside the city walls at the time – consistent with Jewish law. This was confirmed by archeologists following the Six Day War, when Jerusalem was reunited.
Historical context The 16th century is considered the “early modern” period, the “Age of Discovery,” and an era of religious and imperial wars. Beginning with the travels of Marco Polo in the 13th century and the early Renaissance, European culture and commerce flowered. The invention of the printing press in the mid-15th century created a revolution in communication, as nascent nation states struggled for economic and political power, the rise of capitalism and a globalization of interests, spurred by exploration, trade and commerce.
The late 16th and 17th centuries are known as the Dutch Golden Age, a period during which they became the most important commercial, trading and financial center in the world. Although entangled in religious and national conflicts – the Eighty Years War (1568-1648) – between Catholics and Protestants, and between Spain and the Netherlands, the Dutch were known for their independence and religious toleration.
This openness was the foundation for a burst of intellectual and scientific achievement. The University of Leiden, established in 1575, became a center for great thinkers, like René Descartes who lived there from 1628 to 1649. And, of course, the era is best known for its artists, “the Dutch Masters,” like Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, Bruegel and Bosch.
Highly urbanized and very wealthy, Dutch cities became powerhouses of economic, social and cultural activity. The Bank of Amsterdam, established in 1609, became the first central bank. The first stock market was founded in 1602 by the Dutch East India Company. Large shipyards built huge fleets of ships that dominated world trade and provided a formidable navy. The development of navigation and technology enabled an enormous economic expansion during this period that was fueled by chartered companies. These companies established colonies and were heavily involved in the slave trade.
The Dutch West India Company established colonies like New Amsterdam in Manhattan in 1609 – Nassau was the name of a Dutch prince; Peter Stuyvesant was governor in the mid-17th century. Their main interest was the Caribbean and South America, where they built colonies like Suriname/Dutch Guiana. Its rival, the British West India Company, also built similar colonies throughout the Caribbean.
The Dutch East India Company, established in 1602, was given a monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia, Africa and the Indian subcontinent. The first multinational corporation in the world and the first company to issue stock, it was also arguably the world’s first mega-corporation, possessing quasi-governmental powers, including the ability to wage war, imprison and execute convicts, negotiate treaties, coin money and establish slave-based colonies.
Between 1602 and 1796 they sent almost a million Europeans to work in the Asian trade on 4,785 ships, more than the rest of Europe combined. Its major rival, the British East India Company, established at the same time, sent about half as many ships. France, Spain and Portugal also established trading and colonizing companies to expand their empires.
The center of the world: Jerusalem Amid the exploration boom, people traveled around the world, especially to the heart of Western civilization, “Terra Sancta,” and to its center, Jerusalem.
Christian humanist/scholars brought new interests in the Bible and the Hebrew language, as printing presses made texts available on a mass scale.
Theologians, printers and cartographers, therefore, drew maps of places that people wanted to know about. Since most had never been to the Holy Land, they drew what travelers described, what appeared in other maps, and from classical and especially Jewish sources, like the Bible and Talmud, and what they imagined.
Ancient maps sought to provide visual authenticity.
They depict what Europeans were thinking about, especially the importance of Jerusalem as a focus of their spiritual and cultural world. Like Milton Steinberg’s famous New Yorker cartoon map of America, which depicts a huge New York on most of the page and a tiny area for the rest of the country, these ancient maps take us into the world of meaning four and five centuries ago.
The “renaissance” or rebirth of classical learning originated in the humanists’ passion for antiquity, a new perspective inspired by the past and a new understanding of history. In addition to the humanists’ interest in Greek and Hebrew scholarship and keen intellectual curiosity, van Adrichem’s work is an example of how maps were used to connect ancient events with the present.
This new sense of history which van Adrichem’s map represents sought to reintegrate biblical and classical sources as European civilization and culture advanced towards modernity.
The author is a PhD historian, writer and journalist living in Jerusalem.