GEOGRAPHIAE SACRAE PARS PRIOR PHALEG, Samuel Bochart. France, 1646. First edition.

GEOGRAPHIAE SACRAE PARS PRIOR PHALEG, Samuel Bochart. France, 1646. First edition.
Bocharto Samuele was a prominent mapmakers and author of Holy Land travelogues. His geographic work has two sections and added maps. Many editions of the book were printed in Germany and Holland. But the first edition was printed in Cadomi, France today known as Caen. French. This edition is exceptionally rare. The book is divided into two sections. Geographiae Sacrae Pars Prior Phaleg and …Altera Chanaan. Both were printed in France in the above city in 1646. Together, both parts contain about 868 pages in addition to indexes and introductions: General: Map of Canaan-Eretz Israel and all of its surrounding areas, two miniature inset maps on the left side. A second map: Asia Major and inside many miniature maps both on the right and the left. A third map: Map of Italy and to its side, a map of Africa in a separate border.A fourth map: “Gizerat Segulia” (in Hebrew). All of the maps have listings of their places in Hebrew and Latin. This Hebrew map was printed some 50 years before the Hebrew Amsterdam map that is considered to be the first Hebrew map ever. Laor did not see these maps and referred to them in nos. 114 and 115 from a later Dutch edition. Weintraub in his book about “Hebrew maps” cites only one of the maps from this first edition, with an erroneous date of print (no. 22 in his book). As such, he apparently did not see the book itself. All of the maps are printed on large double size paper (41 x 34 cm.) and their condition as well as that of the book is very good.