PATRIARCATE OF ANTIOCH ISRAEL MIDDLE EAST IRAQ CYPRUS 1719 VAN DERAA ANTIQUE MAP

Description: Striking and highly detailed copper engraved copper engraved map showcasing the territorial division and extent of the Patriarchate of Antioch, one of the historic seats of early Christianity, along with neighboring portions of the Patriarchate of Constantinople (top left) and Jerusalem.
 
It covers the entire Middle East, including historical territories such as Armenia, Mesopotamia, Babylonia, Syria, Phoenicia, and the Arabian Peninsula (Arabia Deserta and Arabia Felicis Pars).
 
The island of Cyprus (Cyprus Insula) is clearly visible at the center left, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea (Mare Syriacum). The Persian Gulf (Sinus Persicus) extends to the bottom right, while the Red Sea (Arabicus Sinus) is hinted at at the bottom left.
 
The top right corner is embellished with a baroque cartouche supported by cherubs and classical elements bearing the title and the publisher's signature.

Date: 1700 approx. ( undated )

Dimension: Paper size approx.: cm 51,3 x 38,9

Condition: Very strong and dark impression on good paper.  Sheet with chains. Sheet uncolored. Small foxing and browning. Sheet folded. Conditions are as you can see in the images. 

Cartographers: Pieter van der Aa (1659-1733) was born in Leiden, the eldest son of Boudewijn van der Aa, a German-born stonemason who had moved to Holland. At the age of nine, he apprenticed in the workshop of Daniel van Gaesbeeck, bookseller and printer. After a few years of apprenticeship, he first worked in his master's workshop; from 1682, he started an important book trade, then from 1689 he became editor of academic texts in Latin, with the collaboration of the brothers Boudewijn, typographer, and Hildebrand, engraver. In 1692 he was admitted to the booksellers and printers guild of Leiden (of which he was among the leaders in later years). Between 1694 and 1699 he was printer of the Walloon college; for his clientele of theology students he also began to publish translations into French and Dutch.
 
In the last years of the century he was already a successful typographer, who published large scientific works of high quality, edited by great intellectuals and professors of the University of Leiden, well known also on the foreign market. Among them, Thesaurus antiquitatum graecarum by J. Gronovius (in 13 volumes, from 1697); Thesaurus antiquitatum romanarum by J.G. Graevius (in 12 volumes, from 1694); Thesaurum antiquitatum et historiarum Italiae by Graevius and Burmann (in 30 volumes, from 1704), and, again by the same authors, a similar work on Sicilian antiquities. He also published Leclerc's edition of the works of Erasmus, in eleven volumes.
 
The whole of these great works amounts to 87 folio volumes, a production that none of the previous publishers had reached in terms of scale. In some of them, especially those on Italy, van der Aa also took on the role of author (earning the polemical barbs of Muratori, who however was certainly influenced by him in undertaking his great collections). His production also includes scientific, medical and naturalistic works.
 
In the early years of the eighteenth century, van der Aa also approached travel books and cartography, publishing in 1706 Naauwkeurige Versameling Der Gedenk-waardigste Zee en Landreysen Na Oost en West-Indiën, a large collection of travel reports by different authors ( Dutch and beyond), translated into Dutch and accompanied by maps, images and notes by van der Aa himself. He then specialized in the production of maps and city views, highly appreciated by the market (they weren't always original works, sometimes they were pirated copies of foreign publications). His illustrated atlases were (and still are) much appreciated for their elegance and the beauty of the engravings. This activity of publisher-cartographer culminated in the grandiose Galérie du monde (from 1728) in 66 volumes, consisting almost exclusively of chalcography. It was a luxurious work, of which only 100 copies were printed precisely to keep the price high (van der Aa was a skilful and enterprising businessman, and became very wealthy).
 
His professional reputation reached its peak with his appointment as official printer before the university and the city of Leiden (1715). In 1729, now advanced in years, he decided to put his library up for sale and drew up the catalogue. This operation was probably only partially successful, given that in 1735 (two years after his death, which took place in 1733), a second sales catalogue, considerably reduced, was published by the will of the widow.