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Copper-engraved map, hand-colored. 37x49 cm (14½x19¼").

The Middle-East, centered on Turkey and the Ottoman Empire, including the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, Greece, and less defined portions of Persia, Italy, etc. This is Ortelius' second map of the Turkish Empire, based on Ortelius' own map of Asia, which was derived from the work of Italian mapmaker Giacomo Gastaldi of 1561. The coasts are fairly well-defined, but the interior details are largely hypothetical with many place names taken from antiquity and legend. The Red Sea (Mare de Mecca) is depicted fairly accurately, whereas the Persian Gulf (Mare Elcatif) suffers from an exaggerated Arabian shoreline. The map is embellished with sailing ships, a sea monster in the Black Sea, and a strapwork title cartouche topped by cherubs and supported by a pair of female, winged sea monsters. The map was first issued in 1579 with the watermark of the present example indicating a date of c.1584. Provenance:  P.J. Radford, 1972.