Ierusalem, vetustissima illa et celeberrima totius mundi civitas, by Adam Reissner. Frankfurt am Main: Corvinus, Feyerabend, & Gallus, 1563. Latin, with some Greek and Hebrew.
First Latin edition of Adam Reissner's work on Jerusalem (published the same year as the German edition). The book describes dozens of holy sites (the name of the site appears at the beginning of each chapter in Latin, Greek and Hebrew), and is illustrated with many woodcuts depicting various scenes from the Holy Scriptures. Some of the woodcuts are signed with the monogram VC – draughtsman and printmaker Virgil Solis. On p. 3, a small woodcut map of the Old World – the continents of Asia, Africa and Europe, with Jerusalem in the center. Following p. 24, a double-page woodcut map of Jerusalem before its destruction. This map shows Jerusalem as a rectangle, divided into quarters by three inner walls; the central quarter, in which the Temple is located, is the largest. This map is considered one of the prototypes of the imaginary map of Jerusalem (maps depicting Jerusalem on basis of descriptions from various books).
Adam Reissner (ca. 1496-1575), German Hebraist, mystic and hymn-writer, pupil of Johannes Reuchlin. He studied in the University of Halle-Wittenberg (alongside Marthin Luther and Philip Melanchthon). For many years he was an independent scholar (among other occupations, he worked as a chronicler in Mindelheim and taught theology in Strasbourg). He published various historical and theological works; the most famous of them, apart from his hymns, being the present book.
Bound in blind-stamped leather over card boards (with figures from the Holy Scriptures and other ornaments).

[6] leaves, 653 pages, [16] leaves + [1] plate. 30 cm. Good-fair condition. Worming to binding and book (mostly marginal). Stains, including dampstains. Minor blemishes. Notations and markings in ink (old; inscription on title page dated 1661). Minor blemishes and tears to binding. Spine painted; with handwritten book title and serial number.

Provenance: The Gross Family Collection, Tel Aviv, NHB.377.