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Beautiful antique engraved map of Crete from Marco Boschini's 1652 Il Regno Tutto Di Candia.
The map is the result of Boschini's survey of the Greek island, which began in 1645. That year the island was invaded by the Ottomans, and 6 years later, when the work was published, Candia (Heraklion) had been under siege for four years of what would become an infamous 21-year siege.
"At that time, the attention not only of Venice but the whole of Christian Europe was focused upon the fate of Crete. It was the perfect moment for a patriotic Venetian to affirm the greatness of Venice in the struggle 'contra la potenza vastissima Othomania' " (Clutton).
The map has a characteristic style of rendering topography and toponyms, redolent of the early Italian engravers of the previous century.
According to our records, the last appearance of the whole Boschini work for sale was at Sotheby's in 2008, where it make the equivalent of over $30,000.
![Candia [with] Corfu [with] Zante [with] Mion [with] Nicsia [with Scarpanto](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/46356.jpg)
![The Bay of Corve [with] The Bay of Zea](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/62959op.jpg)