Fine old color example of De Fer's scarce of the Turkish Empire, extending from Italy and the Eastern Mediterranean in the west to the Caspian Sea and Persia in the East and from the Ukraine and Hungary in the north to the Gulf of Arabia in the south.
Marvelous and highly detailed map of the region, centered on Cyprus. The map includes and extensive annotation on the Turkish Empire. There would appear to be at least 3 editions of the map. The first edition shows Danet's address on Pont notre Dame al Sphere Royale and makes no reference to De Fer's title, "Geographe de su Majeste Catolique." This edition shows Danet at the same address and includes the De Fer title as "Geographe de su Majeste Catolique". A later edition shows De Fer's address as Quai d'Orologie and includes the "privilege du roy 1715."
The map is quite rare on the market , with only one auction record and no dealer catalogue records in the past 27 years.
Nicholas de Fer (1646-1720) was the son of a map seller, Antoine de Fer, and grew to be one of the most well-known mapmakers in France in the seventeenth century. He was apprenticed at twelve years old to Louis Spirinx, an engraver. When his father died in 1673, Nicholas helped his mother run the business until 1687, when he became the sole proprietor.
His earliest known work is a map of the Canal of Languedoc in 1669, while some of his earliest engravings are in the revised edition of Methode pour Apprendre Facilement la Geographie (1685). In 1697, he published his first world atlas. Perhaps his most famous map is his wall map of America, published in 1698, with its celebrated beaver scene (engraved by Hendrick van Loon, designed by Nicolas Guerard). After his death in 1720, the business passed to his sons-in-law, Guillaume Danet and Jacques-Francois Benard.