Carte de la Situation du Paradis Terrestre [Map of the Location of the Terrestrial Paradise]
- Title:
- Carte de la Situation du Paradis Terrestre [Map of the Location of the Terrestrial Paradise]
- Alternate Title:
- [Map of the Location of the Terrestrial Paradise]
- Collection:
- Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- Huet, Pierre Daniel
- Date:
- 1691
- Posted Date:
- 2024-04-25
- ID Number:
- 2528.02
- File Name:
- PJM_2528_02.jpg
- Style/Period:
- Before 1800
- Subject:
- Religion
- Measurement:
- 23 x 20 (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- From the Middle Ages to our own time, the land of Eden - the site of biblical Paradise - has been a continuing subject of study, theological and geographical. See generally Scafi 2006. The pendulum has repeatedly swung from a symbolic reading of the biblical Paradise to a literal one and back again. Ibid. 352. "Mapping paradise [is] one of the most powerful expressions of the fundamental tension between the locative and utopian tendencies in Christianity." Ibid. 153.
The Age of Discovery led in the 17th century to persistent pressure for Christian theology to identify the precise location of Paradise in order to validate the text of Genesis. As Thomas Gale wrote in 1694: "Atheists and scoffers, whom the psalmist call Pests, usually demand, What's become of paradise? Shew us the place in the Maps? And if this be not done for them (they are generally lazy) with all exactness, . . . they will slide into a disbelief first of Genesis, then of the whole bible, and lastly of all revealed religion." (Quoted ibid. 284.) There are more than a dozen such maps in the collection, locating Eden from the Middle East (Iraq, Armenia, Palestine) to Western China, Bristol Florida, Jackson County Missouri, and the North Pole; Search > "Eden."
To satisfy this need, Pierre-Daniel Huet, the Catholic Bishop of Avranches, France, set out to establish the location of Paradise with an exactness beyond any previous effort. "With Huet the inquiry into where Paradise was found reaches its most extreme form of meticulous, detailed scholarship." Motta 301. Huet's work, Traitté de la Situation du Paradis Terrestre [Treatise on the Location of the Terrestrial Paradise] (Paris: Jean Annison, 1691), is a detailed, 240-page analysis of eight critical verses of Genesis and other materials, word by word. It was presented to Louis XIV and "long regarded as authoritative." Delumeau 2000, 145.
Huet's work includes two important maps. The first (ID #2528.01) is the decorative frontispiece of the book, a rough bird's-eye view of Tigris-Euphrates valley looking north from the head of the Persian Gulf. Eden is shown just north of the river delta, in the land of Cush (here, Chus). Tiny figures of Adam and Eve are shown, along with the tree and the serpent. The second map (ID #2528.02), Carte de la Situation du Paradis Terrestre, is larger and covers much of the mid-East. It sets out a much more detailed delineation of the precise boundaries of Eden and the "Paradis Terrestre," without any pictorial elements.
Huet's "celebrated treatise" was often reprinted and "enjoyed a long life" in 18th century bibles and elsewhere, Scafi 2006, 310-11. The collection includes two maps explicitly referencing Huet as their source. One was produced shortly after his treatise was published (ID #1014, 1700) and another almost 60 years later (ID #1021, 1750).
Cornell University Library is pleased to present this digital collection of Persuasive Maps, the originals of which have been collected and described by the private collector PJ Mode. The descriptive information in the “Collector’s Notes” has been supplied by Mr. Mode and does not necessarily reflect the views of Cornell University. - Source:
- Huet, Pierre Daniel. 1691. Traitté de la Situation du Paradis Terrestre [Treatise on the Location of the Terrestrial Paradise]. Paris: Jean Annison.
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.