Samaria
- Ancient name
- Samaria
- Modern country
- Israel
- Coordinates
- 32.33, 35.23
- World Historical Gazetteer
- https://whgazetteer.org/places/portal/8364099
Samaria is a historic region of the Levant, located between Galilee to the north and Judea to the south. It is one of several Biblical regions of the Holy Land that typically appear on the Sfera maps. It's also a good example of how toponymic transmission can be easily misinterpreted: in this case a toponym unfmiliar to Italians (samaria) was misread in multiple cases as a truncated form of Santa Maria (e.g. sancta maria) or even San Marino (sammarino).
This toponym does not appear in the poem, only on the maps accompanying it.
Map of the location M077
Variant spellings of Samaria in Sfera manuscripts
| Variant | Manuscripts |
|---|---|
| .S.maria | He3 |
| S[an]c[t]a maria | Ricc17 |
| s[an]c[t]a maria | Marc1 |
| sa[m]maria | Barb3, New |
| Sa[m]maria | Cap1, Morg |
| sam[m]aria | Barb4, Con1 |
| Sam[m]aria | Pad1 |
| samaria | Chig1, Con4, Laur3, NYPL1, Pal8, Parm2, Pnc5, Spe, Urb1 |
| Samaria | BL01, Clas2, Con3, Cors2, Fo, Magl2, Per2, Pnc4, Ricc14, Vat3 |
| Samarya | Cs1 |
| Sammaria | BL02, NYPL2, Ricc8 |
| sammaria | Bal, Borg, NB, NYPL3 |
| sammarino | Fn12 |
| sanmaria | Fn9, He2, Laur5, Ricc12 |
| SAnta mariA | Ricc9 |
| Smaria | Chig2 |
- Suggested citation
- Beneš, Carrie. “Samaria.” Gregorio Dati’s La sfera = The Globe: A Digital Edition, November 13, 2026. https://la-sfera-staging-a8db029690a6.herokuapp.com/toponyms/samaria/.