TURCICUM IMPERIUM
£750
This beautiful folio engraving from a composite atlas of maps from Frederick De Wit. It was published in Amsterdam after 1688. It features original hand-coloring.
This is the second state of De Wit's map of the Turkish Empire, without 'Johannes Lhulier Sculp' in the bottom right border and with his own imprint in the title cartouche. Some more detail has been added in the interior of Arabia (in the region of modern Riyadh), and, strangely, in Italy & Germany. The title cartouche features three men in turbans above two western slaves.
Original colour
As with much late 17th century Dutch colouring there is some light oxidation and here the maps has been preserved having been professionally laid down on Japanese Kozo 30g Archival paper.
Very good condition.
**map depicts the Ottoman Empire on the eve of the Great Turkish War (1683-1699), which marked a turning point in the fortunes of the empire and that of Europe. Up to the 1680s, the European Christian powers of Habsburg, Austria, Russia, Poland-Lithuania and the Republic of Venice, had separately fought the Ottoman Empire in numerous wars over the last century only to arrive at a stalemate. The Turks had largely kept the great gains they had made during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent (ruled 1520-66), in spite of innumerable attempts by the Christian powers to dislodge them. The line of control generally ran through Croatia, the middle of Hungary and northern Romania, to what is now Moldova, with the Ottoman lands being to the south of the line.
In 1683, an Ottoman army broke out of Hungary to besiege Vienna, the Habsburg capital. This sent a shockwave throughout Europe, and only the intervention of Poland's King Jan Sobieski saved the city. In 1684, the region's main Christian powers formed the Holy League, marking the first time that they all joined forces to fight the Ottomans. This quickly turned the tables, as the Allies inflicted a series of severe defeats on the Turks. The Second Battle of Mohács (1687) restored all of Hungary to the Habsburgs. The decisive showdown of the war was the Battle of Zenta (1697) in Serbia, whereby an Allied force under Prince Eugene of Savoy crushed the main army of the Ottoman Sultan Mustafa II.
The Turks sued for peace and the war was concluded at the Treaty of Karlowitz (1699). By the treaty, Austria won all of Hungary, areas in the Balkans and Transylvania; Poland-Lithuania regained Podolia; Russia acquired the key Black Sea port of Azov and Venice acquired Morea and inner Dalmatia. The war was highly consequential in the long run in that it signaled the beginning of a progressive decline in the size and influence of the Ottoman Empire.
Thanks to BL Ruderman
code : M5502
Cartographer : WIT Frederick De
Date : 1688 Amsterdam
Size : 45.5*56.cms sheet 52.5*63 cms
availability : Available
Price : £750
Frederick De Wit (1610-1698) was a prolific Dutch engraver and publisher, active in Amsterdam in the second half of the seventeenth century. He acquired a number of copperplates from the sale of the Blaeu and Jansson stocks to supplement his own plates, thus having a stock of about four hundred maps. De Wit’s own maps are noted for the fine standard of engraving, invariably well designed and decorative. They were very popular amongst his contemporaries, being reprinted many times both by himself and his successors, the Mortiers.
