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Description

Scarce map of Arabia, the earliest folio sized map of Arabia to be engraved in England.

The present example is from a rare late edition of the map, with a revised dedication cartouche and coat of arms, with dedication to the Rt. Honorable William Viscount Brouncker of Lyons and Baron Brouncker of Neru Castle in the Kingdom of Ireland.

While Speed's atlas was published prior to Blome, the plates were engraved and printed in Amsterdam.

The map demonstrates the naïve engraving style characteristic of 17th Century English engravers, and features an elaborate heraldic cartouche with dedications to Blome's patrons, sailing ships and sea monsters. Blome's maps, because of their rarity and importance in the history of English Cartography, are essential items for regional collectors.

Blome first began engraving maps for his Geographical Description Of The Four Parts Of The World in 1667. The completed volume was in small folio, and contained 24 maps (plus one duplicate), engraved by Francis Lamb, Thomas Burnford and Wenceslas Hollar. Blome's principal handicap in the production of the atlas was the lack of a domestic mapmaking environment comparable with that in Europe. Also, to finance his work, he undertook subscribers, in exchange for a promise to add their coat of arms to certain maps. In later editions, if the renewal fee was not paid, Blome added a different subscribers coat of arms, leading to multiple images on various editions of the same map.

The present example is one of the later variant editions, with signs of the prior coat of arms present on either side of the coat of arms above the dedication.

Condition Description
Old Color, quite likely original. Minor repair at center of map and two wormholes filled at upper margins.