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Jerusalem as the Prime Meridian
This rare map by William Whiston offers a detailed representation of the Holy Land, specifically the territories of the Twelve Tribes of Israel.
The map includes a comprehensive list of place names, each accompanied by its longitude and latitude using Jerusalem as the Prime Meridian, allowing the viewer to locate sites geographically. The map draws on the earlier works by prominent geographers such as Christophorus Cellarius, Adrian Reland, and Henry Maundrell. However, William Whiston introduces significant changes, which are explained in his note to readers. Whiston’s corrections address what he perceived as geographical inaccuracies in the earlier maps, making this version an important revision of existing cartographic knowledge.
Whiston’s adjustments also reflect his broader scholarly interests, as he was known for blending natural philosophy with theology. He calculated the Holy Land’s area in acres, arriving at a much larger estimate than previous geographers. This revision allowed him to argue that the region could have supported its biblical population, a controversial point in biblical exegesis at the time.
Whiston's use of a local zero meridian through Jerusalem to calculate longitudes is especially noteworthy, as it underscores his theological and scientific engagement with geography. This method of calculation was unique and symbolically significant, given the centrality of Jerusalem to Christian thought.
The map is further enhanced by a gazetteer-style legend, which indexes points of interest, sacred sites, and various settlements throughout the region. The inclusion of longitude and latitude lines for each location exemplifies Whiston’s desire to make the map as practical as it was instructive. In addition to the geographical details, the map includes an illustration of an ancient shekel coin, depicted from both sides, adding an archaeological dimension that ties the map’s religious and historical themes to tangible artifacts.
Produced around 1737, likely as a companion to Whiston's translation of The Genuine Works of Flavius Josephus, this map represents an essential contribution to both cartography and biblical studies. By acknowledging his sources—Reland’s Palaestina and Cellarius’s Notitia Orbis Antiqui—while introducing his own considerable textual and geographical corrections, Whiston created a map that engages with theological debates and scientific concerns of the period.
Whiston's credit to Henry Maundrell is also unusual. Henry Maundrell (1665–1701) was an Oxford-educated clergyman who served as chaplain to the Levant Company in Syria from 1695. His Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem at Easter A.D. 1697, based on his pilgrimage diary, became a widely reprinted travel classic, known for its detailed accounts of the Middle East.
Rarity
The map is very rare on the market.
OCLC locates 3 examples.
William Whiston (1667-1752) was a theologian, natural philosopher, mathematician, and lecturer who worked with Isaac Newton, Edmond Halley, and other savants. The son of a rector, young William was educated at Clare College, Cambridge, where he was awarded a BA in 1689.
After a period as a chaplain, Whiston returned to Cambridge to study Newton’s theories, which had been published as the Principa mathematica in 1687. Whiston began to publish on Newton’s ideas, using them to prove that the Scriptures were compatible with the new natural philosophy. Whiston resigned his fellowship upon his marriage in 1699, but Newton invited him to Cambridge again to lecture as Newton’s deputy. Newton then oversaw Whiston’s election as the third Lucasian professor of mathematics in 1702.
Whiston published and taught widely on mathematics, physics, experimental philosophy, and astronomy. He was hailed as a popularizer of Newton’s theories, which were important and yet hard to grasp. He also, however, was interested in prophetic research and anti-trinitarianism. His outspokenness about the latter led him to be stripped of his professorship and expelled from the university for heresy in 1710.
Whiston then moved to London, where he served as a private teacher and lecturer. He also continued publishing; by his death, he had published over 120 books, pamphlets, and charts. Along with Humphrey Ditton, Whiston published a broadsheet urging for the creation of an award for solving the longitude problem, a project that led to the creation of the Board of Longitude. The duo also suggested an infamous solution to the problem, the stationing of ships at intervals which would fire shells in the air, allowing navigators to observe and calculate their location based on the flash and sound of the blast. Whiston also proposed a solution based on dipping needles.
In the 1710s, Whiston began to publish popular astronomical broadsides that included charts of eclipses and the solar system. He experimented with star shells for surveying, as an alternative to triangulation. With his dipping needle work, he produced a map of the English Channel in 1721 that was one of the earliest examples of isogonic lines on a map. In 1743, he published a new map of the Channel based on an original survey for the Board of Longitude. Even his biblical work contained maps. His translation of the Jewish historian Josephus (1737) remained popular until the twentieth century and its contained important maps of the Holy Land.
![[ Holy Land ] Tabula Terre Sanctae](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/102707.jpg)
