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Adam Olearius : Nova Delineatio Persiæ et Confinorum Deteri longe accuratior

Hand Colored, Very Good; Laid on acid free tissue paper for long term preservation. , Size : 387x546 (mm), 15.25x21.50 (Inches)

Our example is the Latin variant of Olearius’s map of Persia dated 1655. “This map was designed probably in the late 1630s, first printed in 1646 and first appearing in the German edition of the Olearius’s Travel account, published in 1647. There is a decorative title cartouche in the lower left quarter, showing a female cupbearer on the right side with a bottle, presumably offering wine to a Persian nobleman who stands on the other side, holding a wine bowl. A decorative dedication cartouche is placed on the right lower part of the map. Orlearius claims that he has benefited from two separate sources in the making of this map. Firstly, his own observations and surveys along his travelling route and in the cities he visited. Secondly, the indigenous information by which he obviously means the Persian or so-called Islamic geographical books and astronomical tables. He refers particularly to the astronomical tables of Nasir al-Din Tusi (late thirteenth century) and of Ulugh Bed (mid-fifteenth century). He argues that, as his own surveys of a small section of the country and the information contained in the local sources for the same section are in agreement, he is right to trust the whole of the local (Persian or Islamic) sources which he has consulted. He must have also seen a manuscript copy of Jayhani’s map of the Caspian Sea, which could have served him as a model for its shape.
Until mid-seventeenth century, the Caspian Sea has usually been depicted in oval form stretched on its west-east axis, as suggested by Ptolemy. Orlearius, however, navigating the west shores of the Caspian Sea himself, was probably the first to dispute the Ptolemaic legacy. The new shape of the Caspian has a big impact on the extension and geographical position of Persia, as a whole and in this respect it was of utmost importance. “

Adam Olearius (24 September 1599 – February 22, 1671) the celebrated traveler, writer and important German Orientalist, studied philosophy and was a member of the Court of Frederic, Duke of Holstein. He was instrumental in importing silk from Persia and became acquainted with the king of Persia. He also obtained the unrestricted passage of his goods through Russia from the czar. As a merchant from Hamburg, he was sent by the duke to Muscovy and Persia in the hope of making arrangements by which his newly-founded city of Friedrichstadt should become the terminus of an overland silk-trade. It is by his admirable narrative of the Russian and the Persian legation that Olearius is best known A French version of his work was published by Abraham de Wicquefort (Voyages en Moscovie, Tartarie et Perse, par Adam Olearius, Paris, 1656), an English version was made byJohn Davies of Kidwelly (Travels of the Ambassadors sent by Frederic, Duke of Holstein, to the Great Duke of Muscovy and the King of Persia, London, 1662; and 1669), and a Dutch translation by Dieterius van Wageningen (Beschrijvingh van de nieuwe Parciaensche ofte Orientaelsche Reyse, Utrecht, 1651 Olearius\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\' other works includes a Lexicon Persicum and several other Persian studies and a translation of the Gulistan (Persianisches Rosenthal, Schleswig, 1654), to which was appended a translation of the fables of Luqman.
, From General Maps of Persia 1477-1925 by Cyrus Alai ( E. 159; Pl. 97)

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