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Interesting map of the Eastern Mediterranean, Turkey, Armenia, Persia and part of Saudi Arabia, intended to illustrate the travels of John Newberry.
In February 1583, Newberry, along with Ralph Fitch, John Eldred, William Leedes, and James Story, embarked in the Tiger and reached Syria in late April. (Act I, scene 3 of William Shakespeare's Macbeth alludes to the trip.) From Aleppo (Syria), they went overland to the Euphrates, which they descended to Al-Fallujah, now in Iraq, and from there crossed over to Baghdad. Newberry died on the return trip.
Pieter van der Aa (1659-1733) was a Dutch mapmaker and publisher who printed pirated editions of foreign bestsellers and illustrated books, but is best known for his voluminous output of maps and atlases. Van der Aa was born to a German stonecutter from Holstein. Interestingly, all three van der Aa sons came to be involved in the printing business. Hildebrand was a copper engraver and Boudewyn was a printer.
![Asiae, Quae Vulgò Minor Dicitur, et Syriae tabula geographica, quantum per subsidia licuit elaborata, opere, si quod aliud in antiqua geographia, arduo. Quam tabulam clariss. Dom. Comes de Caylus in aere incidi curavit. [Asia, commonly called the Lesser, and Syria, a geographic map, as much as it was possible to elaborate with the aids, a work, if any in ancient geography, arduous. This map the most illustrious Lord Count of Caylus had carved in copper.]](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/100258.jpg)
