Map of the Holy Land engraved by Abraham bar Yaakov (Amsterdam Haggadah)

This engraved map depicts the Holy Land and the route of the Exodus, and was designed to accompany the text of the Haggadah printed in Amsterdam, a major center of Hebrew publishing in the early modern period. Jewish cartography of this type represents the territories of the twelve tribes of Israel as well as the stages of the Hebrews' wandering in the desert, from the crossing of the Red Sea to the entry into Canaan. Executed as a copperplate engraving on paper, it belongs at once to the liturgical illustration of the Passover narrative and to the biblical didactic geography fashionable in the United Provinces. These engraved plates helped to disseminate a visual image of sacred geography in Jewish homes.