Sacred words and worlds : geography, religion, and scholarship, 1550-1700 / / by Zur Shalev.

• Superior document: History of science and medicine library. Scientific and learned cultures and their institutions, v. 2
• Author: Shalev, Zur, 1967-
• Year of Publication: 2012
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: History of science and medicine library. Scientific and learned cultures and their institutions ; v. 2.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (342 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

In early modern Europe, fundamental geographical as well as religious certainties became unstable. At the intersection of the two stood sacred geography. This book examines the scope and content of this early modern scholarly genre, which engaged many of Europe’s leading scholars. On the one hand, 'geographia sacra' is analyzed in the context of antiquarian scholarship. Equipped with newly-developed sophisticated tools, scholars compiled, measured, and meticulously documented biblical and ecclesiastical space. On the other hand, this study argues, 'geographia sacra' was never detached from present concerns, and took part in confessional debates over scriptural authority, papal legitimacy, and the authenticity of liturgy. Hence today’s interest in the notions of ‘sacred space’ and spatiality had a lively, controversial, and crucial precedent in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Scientific and Learned Cultures and Their Institutions , 2

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material -- Early Modern Geographia Sacra: Themes and Approaches -- The Antwerp Polyglot Bible: Maps, Scholarship, and Exegesis -- Antiquarian Zeal and Sacred Measurement on the Road to Jerusalem -- The Phoenicians are Coming! Samuel Bochart’s Protestant Geography -- Putting the Church on the Map: Ecclesiastical Cartography across the Denominational Divide -- Epilogue -- Appendix Extant Manuscripts of Samuel Bochart -- Bibliography -- Index.