Map of the Land of Israel in Accordance with Elijah, Gaon of Vilna [Horodna and] Vilna: 1821

1 engraved map (15 ½ x 12 in.; 395 x 305 mm). Contemporary hand-coloring in outline; central fold, lightly soiled.

This extremely rare map, depicting the division of the Land of Israel among the twelve tribes directly based upon the teachings of Rabbi Elijah ben Shlomo Zalman (1720-97), better known as the Vilna Gaon. The Gaon was one of the most influential Jewish thinkers since the Middle Ages. In addition to being the leading authority on the Torah and the Talmud of his day, he was recognized as an accomplished mathematician and astronomer and wrote prolifically, producing commentaries on numerous Jewish texts and subjects, as well as mathematical and scientific works. Although he never visited the Holy Land, more than 500 of his disciples moved to Palestine at his urging; this immigration is considered the beginning of the modern Jewish settlement of the Land of Israel.  The map seen here, an intaglio engraving by Dov Baer ben Yosef Juspa of Vilna is the earliest version of the Vilna Gaon’s map rendered cartographically rather than as a schematic diagram. This engraving is exceedingly rare, with only two copies recorded, one at the National Library of Israel and a copy appended to a multi-volume Hebrew Bible edition in the British Library.

LITERATURE:
Yeshayahu Vinograd, Otzar Sifrei ha-Gra, pp.7 (#24, n.17), 290.