Map Of Paradise On Earth According To Moses, Early 18th Century

Page 67 of a work from the beginning of the 18th century "Genesis"
Sheet 54 X 39 cm plate 19 X 30 cm
Very good condition
Date: 1704 or 1724

"Adjoining the Historical Table of the First Age of the World Taken from Genesis [...], this map follows the opinion of the Benedictine Dom Calmet who, at the beginning of the 18th century, located the earthly paradise in Armenia, between the sources of the Tigris, the Euphrates, the Phasis and the Araxes. Since the Renaissance, specialists have examined various geographical hypotheses with criticism, attempting to reconcile the letter of the sacred text and the new knowledge resulting from the great discoveries. Little followed in the Middle Ages, when the torrid zone was assumed to be uninhabitable, the equatorial hypothesis put forward by Tertullian was thus defended by several authors, who leaned towards a location sometimes in Africa (Luis de Urreta), sometimes in the New World (Christopher Columbus, Antonio de León Pinelo). But most of the commentators of Genesis, anxious to respect the letter which placed the Garden of Eden in the east and cited the Tigris and the Euphrates, opted for the Near or Middle East, without however agreeing on a more precise location: Armenia was thus in competition with Mesopotamia and the Holy Land. (thanks to the BnF, Department of Maps and Plans)