Guillaume Sanson, Turkey in Asia [ca. 1743]

Title: Turkey in Asia.

Author: Guillaume Sanson (“Sanson the Younger”)

Publisher: "Introduction to the General and Political History of the Universe"—a work initiated by Samuel Pufendorf, continued and expanded by Bruzen de la Martinière, Amsterdam, published by Zacharie Chatelain

Year of publication: [ca. 1743].

Format: 17x14 cm (170x140 mm).

A small copperplate map titled "Turquie en Asie" depicts the Asian provinces of the Ottoman Empire—an area encompassing Asia Minor, Syria, Mesopotamia, and the northern reaches of the Arabian Peninsula. It comes from Volume V of a multi-volume historical and geographical compendium initiated by Pufendorf, whose contents (Moscow, two maps of Turkey in Europe, Turkey in Asia, Hungary, Bohemia) is corroborated by independent antiquarian descriptions of this edition. Cartographically, the map originates from the workshop of Guillaume Sanson.

The title “Turquie en Asie” (and the related “Turquie d’Asie”) was a standard formula in French cartography, recurring for over a century in numerous independent editions by various publishers—in the 19th century, similar maps were published by, among others, Alexandre Vuillemin (1846), John Tallis (ca. 1851), and Alexander Keith Johnston; and in the 18th century, a map titled “Turquie d’Asie, Arabie, Perse, Tartarie Independante,” engraved by E. Dussy for Robert de Vaugondy’s “Nouvel Atlas Portatif,” as well as Claude Buffier’s educational map “Turquie en Asie anciene et moderne” from the early 18th century—none of these traditions, however, is identical to the map presented here.

An item of interest to collectors of early cartography, researchers of Middle Eastern history, and enthusiasts of 18th-century pocket atlases.

A single-color copperplate print, without hand coloring. The sheet is intact, with a visible trace of a former fold running across the map.

Catalog ID: M130-17-A-X