Mundum tradidit disputationi eorum

Heinrich Scherer was a German Jesuit cartographer, geographer, and professor who taught Hebrew, Ethics, and Mathematics at the University of Dillingen before becoming tutor to the royal princes of Mantua and Bavaria in Munich. His Atlas Novus, first published between 1702 and 1710, combined geography, astronomy, history, theology, and missionary knowledge within a Catholic intellectual framework.

This allegorical title page was made for Scherer’s atlas. The design was drawn by Johann Degler and engraved by Matthäus Wolfgang. At the centre is a large armillary sphere encircled by the motto Mundum tradidit disputationi eorum, from Ecclesiastes 3: 11. The phrase may be understood as “He has given the world to their inquiry.” At the top centre, God’s hand reaches from a radiant triangle to hold the armillary sphere, placing geographical and astronomical knowledge under divine authority. At upper left, Geographia works on a gridded map or chart. The sheet contrasts Ptolomaei the inherited Ptolemaic mode of geographical description, with a “corrected” modern delineation, suggesting that Scherer’s atlas revises ancient geography through measurement, observation, and new reports from navigation. The small ships drawn on the chart connect this corrected geography to maritime exploration.

At upper right, a second figure holds a circular cosmographical instrument labelled Geolabium and a calendar table, linking the measurement of the earth to astronomical calculation, chronology, and the ordering of time. At lower left, a seated scholar or patron receives written reports from a kneeling messenger or mariner. The papers refer to Relationes and to information from the Indies, Christian kingdoms, Tartary, and other regions, suggesting the gathered reports on which the atlas depends. An open book nearby is labelled Geographica and Historia, reinforcing the union of geographical description and historical knowledge. Books, loose papers, and ships in the background connect Scherer’s atlas to travel, missionary knowledge, navigation, and the circulation of written accounts.

At lower right, a figure holds a sheet labelled Horoscop., marked with zodiacal and planetary signs, while another diagram at his feet is labelled Domus Planetarum. The torn horoscope suggests the rejection or subordination of judicial astrology in favour of mathematical astronomy, geography, and ordered celestial knowledge. Together, the title page presents the atlas as a work in which geography, astronomy, chronology, travel, and theology are brought into relation. The world is shown as measurable and knowable, but also as part of a divinely ordered creation.