Mapping Paradise: A History of Heaven on Earth

Scafi, Alessandro

ISBN 10: 0712348778 / ISBN 13: 9780712348775

Editore: British Library Publishing Division, London, UK, 2006

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398pp, various in-text photographs. Burgundy cloth-covered boards; gilt titles on spine; illustrated endpapers. 4to. Rubbed spine ends. Internally neat, clean, bright and tight. Dust jacket has very light shelf wear, light damage to top front corner, mirrors book damage.

Codice articolo 038954

Dati bibliografici

• Titolo: Mapping Paradise: A History of Heaven on Earth
• Editore: British Library Publishing Division, London, UK
• Data di pubblicazione: 2006
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0712348778
• ISBN 13: 9780712348775
• Rilegatura: Hardcover
• Condizione: Very Good
• Condizione della sovraccoperta: Very Good
• Cataloghi dei venditori:
  • Religion, Theology, Churches and Church History
  • Self Help, Reflection and Spiritual

Descrizione articolo

Riassunto

Throughout history, humans have searched for paradise. When early Christians adopted the "Hebrew Bible", and with it the story of "Genesis", the "Garden of Eden" became an idyllic habitat for all mankind. Medieval Christians believed paradise was a place on earth, different from the world, yet part of it, situated in real geography and indicated on maps. From the Renaissance through to the Enlightenment, the mapping of paradise validated the authority of Holy Scripture and supported Christian faith. But, from the early nineteenth century onwards, the question of the exact location of paradise was left not to theologians, but to the layman. And, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, there is still no end to the stream of theories on the exact position of the mythical Garden of Eden. In his scholarly and immensely engaging history of the cartography of paradise, Alessandro Scafi journeys from the beginning of Christianity to the present day. Instead of dismissing the medieval belief in an earthly paradise as a picturesque legend, and the cartography of paradise as merely a medieval superstition, Scafi explores the intellectual conditions that made the mapping of paradise possible. The challenge for mapmakers, he argues, was to make visible a place that was geographically inaccessible and yet real, remote in time and yet still the scene of an essential episode in the history of salvation. As the absorbing story unfolds, each episode is richly illustrated by contemporary maps, many illuminated by the author's unique cartographic drawings.

Recensione

This book provides a facsinating overview of the the varying opinions concerning the nature and location of the garden of Eden......daughting as this voyage may sound, Scafi has managed to confect an accessable and charming digest that leaves the reader with a fairly justified sense of having fully explored the topic. --The Burlington Magazine