This double-page wood engraved map of Europe is in the form of a virgin. It is one of the earliest cartographic curiosities published. It is found in the 1581 work by Heinrich Bünting entitled ‘Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae’ published in Magdeburg. It was the first book devoted to the geography and history of the Holy Land. The map was first produced by Joannes Bucius in 1537. It is designed with the west at the top with Spain as a crowned head. Italy is is represented by the right arm with Sicily cleverly placed in the orb, Denmark the left one. Eastern Europe forms the dress. It has been suggested that the image in fact represents not a woman, but the Emperor Charles V. It draws on the fact that the image might in fact represent the Imperial power of Spain that was at the time the ‘crown of Europe’. The Sceptre reaches the British Isles.

Bünting was born in Hannover, Germany, in 1545 and studied at Wittenberg University. He became a pastor at Gronau and noted Protestant theologian. It is famous also for his clover leaf image of the world and the continent of Asia depicted as Pegasus. The book is his most famous work and is in fact one of the rarest despite running to a number of editions in different languages. At least two further new blocks were produced in 1595 and in 1610. This is an example of the first. A series of explanatory verses appears below. Van der Heijden ‘De Oudste Gedruckte Kaarten van Europa’ no. 42; Hill ‘Cartographical Curiosities’ p. 39; Map Collectors Circle 1 no. 2; Tooley Map Collector Collations no. 3 p. 48.