Europa prima pars Terrae informa virginis

Title

Europa prima pars Terrae informa virginis

Description

Map shows Europe as a woman,Spain is the crowned head, Italy and Denmark arms, and the figure’s robes flow eastwards towards central Europe, Russia and the Balkans.

ca. 1587

Artist

Bünting (1545-1606)

Heinrich Bünting (1545 – 1606) was a Protestant pastor and theologian. He is best known for his book of woodcut maps titled Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae (Travel book through Holy Scripture) first published in 1581. Bünting was born in Hannover, Germany, in 1545. He studied theology at the University of Wittenberg graduating in 1569 and became a Protestant pastor in Lemgo. He was dismissed in 1575 and moved to Gronau an der Leine. In 1591 he was appointed superintendent in Goslar. When a dispute arose over his teachings in 1600 he was dismissed and retired from the ministry. He spent the rest of his life as a private citizen in Hannover. His book of woodcut maps, Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae, first published in Magdeburg in 1581, was a very popular book in its day. It was reprinted and translated several times. The book provided the most complete summary of biblical geography available and described the Holy Land by following the travels of various notable people from the Old and New Testaments. In addition to conventional maps, the book also contained three figurative maps; the world depicted using a cloverleaf design thought to possibly represent the Trinity with Jerusalem in the center, Europe in the form of a crowned and robed woman, and Asia as the winged horse Pegasus.

Historical Description

Especially the Greek culture, the Roman Empire and Christianity left their mark until today. In ancient times, the Roman Empire at the time of Augustus united for the first time the entire southern Europe together with the other coastal countries of the Mediterranean in one great empire. In the Roman Empire, the new religion of Christianity was able to spread rapidly. In the early Middle Ages, the Paderborn Epic declared the ruler of the Frankish Empire, Charlemagne, to be the "Father of Europe." The Middle Ages were marked, among other things, by competition between the new Roman emperor in the West and the Byzantine emperor in Constantinople, in the East, to whose two spheres of influence the later deepened division into a Western and Eastern Europe can be traced. Since the 15th century, European nations (especially Spain, Portugal, Russia, the Netherlands, France, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) built colonial empires with large possessions on all other continents. Europe is the continent that has influenced the other continents the most, for example, through Christian missionary work, colonies, slave trade, exchange of goods and culture. n the 18th century, the Enlightenment movement set new directions and demanded tolerance, respect for human dignity, equality and freedom. In France, the French Revolution brought the bourgeoisie to power in 1789. In the early 19th century, half of Europe had to conform to the will of Napoleon, the French emperor who came to power after the revolutionary period, until he suffered a fiasco in Russia in 1812. The conservative victorious powers then tried to restore pre-revolutionary conditions at the Congress of Vienna, which succeeded only temporarily. Industrialization began in parts of Europe in the 18th century and rapidly changed the everyday lives of broad sections of the population.