Medio Oriente - Turkey, Cyprus, Armenia, Syria, Lebanon, the Holy Land, Saudi Arabia; Verdussen - Turquie en Asie - 1725

Technical data

Title: Turquie en Asie
Author: I. Peeters (Jacques Peeters), to whom the cartographic design is attributed.
Engraver: Attributed to Jacobus Harrewijn. The signature cannot be identified with certainty.
Draughtsman: Not indicated.
Publisher: Juan Bautista Verdussen.
Place: Antwerp.
Date: 1725, the date of the reference edition.
Technique: Copperplate engraving, etched and engraved with a burin, with period hand-coloring along the coastlines and borders, on the cartouche, and on some ornamental elements.
Support: Laid paper.
Dimensions: Sheet 19 × 20 cm, plate mark 15.5 × 13.5 cm.
Composition: Single map with a central vertical publisher’s fold, place names in French, and a graduated border.
Source work: The volume to which this impression belonged has not been ascertained.


Description

Map of the Asian domains of the Ottoman Empire and neighboring regions, from the Aegean archipelago and the Nile Delta to western Persia and the Persian Gulf. Anatolia occupies the center of the composition, between the Black Sea, also identified by its ancient name Pont-Euxin, and the eastern Mediterranean. Constantinople, Smyrna, Trebizond, Aleppo, Jerusalem, Baghdad, and Cairo are marked. The main settlements are shown with small city symbols, while hachuring indicates the Taurus and Ararat mountain ranges.
Regions and states depicted: present-day Turkey, including Anatolia and part of eastern Thrace; the Greek islands of the Aegean, including Rhodes, and part of Crete; Cyprus; Georgia and the area of historic Armenia; Syria; Lebanon; Israel and the Palestinian Territories; Jordan; Iraq; western Iran; northern Egypt and Sinai; part of Saudi Arabia; and Bahrain. The map also distinguishes the historic regions of Caramania, Phoenicia, Judea, and Assyria, as well as the traditional divisions of Arabia.
The title is inscribed in a cartouche featuring a turban and a trophy of arms, at upper left. At the center of the upper margin, two vegetal scrolls frame the scale in leagues. The coloring primarily follows the coastlines and territorial boundaries, leaving the dense network of place names legible.

Historical and artistic note

The compact format and central fold are characteristic of maps designed for small-format geographical atlases. The plate combines names used in the European cartography of the period with those of ancient and biblical geography. The wording “Turcomanie, jadis Armenie” and the presence of the ruins of Troy and Babylon show how the map also served to locate sites from ancient history within the geography of the modern age.

Condition Report

Overall in good condition, with margins on all four sides and a clearly legible impression. Central vertical publisher’s fold, slightly browned. Slight yellowing of the paper and tiny scattered foxing spots. Verso without text, with slight show-through from the printing and a few brownish marks.