The First Printed Maps, by Lucas Brandis

(1475)

In 1475 (some 25 years after the invention of printing from moveable type) Lucas Brandis published an encyclopaedic work about Christianity to which he added two maps which thus became the first printed maps, all previous maps having been manuscripts. One is a circular world map centered on the Holy Land. The other, shown here, is a map of the Land of Israel with Jerusalem at its center. In common with most mediaeval maps it, too, describes the Bible lands not geographically but symbolically.