Willem Blaeu (1571-1638). Persia Sive Sophorum Regnum (Persia, or the Kingdom of Sophorum). (Amsterdam: 1642). First state. Copperplate engraving with exquisite original hand-color on strong laid paper. 14 7/8 x 19 5/8 in. to neatline, plus full margins. Sheet size: 20 x 23 1/8. Dutch text on verso. Excellent, full-margined example. $950.
$950.00
Iconic Dutch Map of Persia
This is a classic 17th-century Willem Blaeu map of the Kingdom of Persia – one of the most beautiful Dutch Golden Age maps of Persia. The map is centered on the Persian Empire under the Safavid dynasty, extending eastwards to the Indus River, with part of the great Mogul empire shown. To the west, the Fertile Crescent and Arabia are shown as part of the Ottoman Turkish Empire. The Caspian Sea is at the upper center of the map, first appearing in the geography of Claudius Ptolemy. This model was not replaced until the end of the 17th century, and the Caspian Sea was not correctly depicted on a map until the 1720s. The southernmost extent of the Grand Duchy of Muscovy can be seen in the Caucasus, northwest of the Caspian. The lands west of the Volga are dominated by Tartaria: the empire of the Great Khan.
Shown pictorially are the mountains of central and eastern Persia. The region’s inland seas and lakes are distinctively stippled and shaded. The title cartouche includes three figures, most likely Shah Abbas the Great (1571-1629) flanked by two guards. In the lower right, Blaeu has included an elegant cartouche displaying the name and family arms of Amsterdam politician Theodoro Tholing, which marks this example as a first state. Tholing had proved a poor choice as a patron as he went bankrupt in 1644 and fled Amsterdam. The second, 1644 state of this map sports an empty dedicatory cartouche; by 1662 Joan Blaeu picked a solvent patron in Simon Van Hoorn, and dedicated the final, third state of the map to him.
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