A 16th century Bohemian edition of Lufft’s ‘Daniel’s Dream’ world map with fantastical creatures

A most unusual world map, designed to illustrate a commentary on Daniel's apocalyptic dream from the Old Testament, which the authors, Justus Jonas and Philipp Melanchthon (with help from their friend Martin Luther), saw as an allegory for the victory of the Christian world over Ottoman Empire, and were using as propaganda for a holy war.

The map depicts the three continents of the old world, their names the only writing on the map. Of more importance are the four fabulous beasts representing empires, as described in Chapter Seven of the Book of Daniel: a lion with eagle's wings (Babylon or Assyria); a bear (Persia); a leopard with four wings and four heads (the Macedon of Alexander); and a goat with iron teeth and ten horns, including one small horn on which is a human head (Western Roman Empire with the small horn representing the Ottomans). Also in Asia is an army, mounted on horses, wearing turbans and carrying lances, representing the threat of the Turkish army.

Originally published in Wittenburg by Lufft in 1530, this example comes from a second version, believed to have been cut by either Melchior Schwarzenberg or Moritz Schreiber (the monogram 'MS' is on other blocks), also in use from 1530. Ernst Gallner (www.daniels-dream-map.com) lists four editions of a Czech bible with this state of the block by the same publisher: 1549, 1558, 1561 & 1566.