File:Carte de la Turquie de l'Arabie et de la Perse - dressée sur les memoires les plus recens rectifiéz par les observations de (MAPS 84).jpg

English:

Copper engraving handcolored with watercolor.

Outline color.

Relief shown pictorially.

Printed in cartouche in lower left corner: "Carte de la Turquie De l'Arabie et de la Perse Dressée sur les Memoires les plus recens rectifies par les Observations de Mrs. De l'Academie Rle. Des Sciences Par G. De l'Isle Geographe. A Paris, Chez l'Auteur sur le Quai de l'Horloge al' Aigle d'Or Avec Privilege."

Printed above the cartouche is a scale comparing Italian miles, Arabian miles, Egyptian miles and other land units.

Printed in the lower right corner in the border: "H. van Loon Sculpcit."

Written in brown ink in upper right corner: "68."

Shows Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, part of Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of southern Europe including Spain, France, Italy, and Greece. The Nile River, the Niger River, the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea are also indicated on the map. Includes notes about the geographic features. The title cartouche is decorated with garlands, an Arab man and a native, a turbaned head at the top and two satyrs. Of note, a previously engraved text is visible, but illegible, beneath the title cartouche.

Guillaume de L'Isle (1675-1726) was a cartographer and the Premier Geographer to the King in France beginning in 1718. His family played a significant part in the world of French cartography in the eighteenth century. At age 9, he drew his first map and at age 27 he became a member of the Académie Royale des Sciences. He studied under Jacques Cassini, acquiring knowledge in both mathematics and astronomy. Due to his academic background and his "critical approach to the maps of his predecessors," he became known as the first "scientific cartographer" (Moreland and Bannister, 132). Among his works are "Globe, map of the world and the four continents" (1700), "Atlas de Géographie" (1700-12), "Mississippi" (1701), "Carte du Mexique et de la Floride…" (c.a. 1703), "Carte de la Louisiane et du Mississippi" (1718) and posthumously, "Atlas Noveau" (1730 and later). Following his death, his widow took up the business with a partner, Philippe Buache (Tooley 395; Moreland and Bannister, 131-2). This particular map was most likely published in De L'Isle's "Atlas de Geographie." Source(s): Moreland, Carl and David Bannister. "Antique Maps: A Collector's Handbook." New York: Longman Group, Ltd., 1983. Tooley, Ronald Vere. "Tooley's Dictionary of Mapmakers." Hertfordshire: Map Collector Publications Limited, 1979.

• Subjects (LCSH): Middle East-Maps-Early works to 1800.