A Map of Paradise Mount Ararat and the City of Babel according to the three different Hypotheses mentioned in this Work
- Title:
- A Map of Paradise Mount Ararat and the City of Babel according to the three different Hypotheses mentioned in this Work
- Alternate Title:
- Paradise According to Three Different Hypotheses
- Collection:
- Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- Mead, Bradock [John Green]
- Date:
- 1747
- Posted Date:
- 2015-08-25
- ID Number:
- 1023.01
- Collection Number:
- 8548
- File Name:
- PJM_1023_01.jpg
- Style/Period:
- Before 1800
- Subject:
- Religion
- Measurement:
- 27 x 36 (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."
This map retreats from the attempt to provide certainty by offering the viewer "three different Hypotheses" for the location of Paradise: one in Palestine, one in modern Armenia, and one in modern Iraq. It appeared in volume 1 of "An Universal History", first published in 1747 and reprinted throughout the 18th century.
The authorship is a bit of a mystery. The map has variously been attributed to "J. Blundell," Emanuel Bowen or his son Thomas (which seems less likely, since he was only 14 when the map was first published), John Gibson, or Thomas Kitchin. French, Tooley's Dictionary of Mapmakers, 3:229, attributes the maps in "An Universal History" to "John Green," the pseudonym used by Bradock Mead, and the Osher Map Library has said that this particular map "certainly . . . has all the hallmarks of Green's work." http://www.oshermaps.org/special-map-exhibits/percy-map/john-green, accessed November 18, 2014. Green hid his identify as a result of repeated legal difficulties, including imprisonment for his role in the kidnapping of an heiress. Ibid.
On the various mapmakers, see generally French 1999-2004.
For further information on the Collector’s Notes and a Feedback/Contact Link, see https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/about-collection-personal-statement and https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/feedback-and-contact - Source:
- Sale, George, & others. 1747 or later. An Universal History, from the Earliest Account of Time. Compiled from Original Authors
and Illustrated with Maps, Cuts, Notes, &c., vol. 1. London: T. Osborne. - Cite As:
- P.J. Mode collection of persuasive cartography, #8548. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.
- Repository:
- Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library
- Archival Collection:
- P.J. Mode collection of persuasive cartography
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.