Exactissima Asiae Delineatio in Praecipuas Regiones

Rare map of Asia based on Nicolaas Witsen’s six-sheet wall chart of Tartary.

The map extends from the Mediterranean in the west, to Japan in the east and from northern China and Russia, south to Australia. A large and sumptuous title cartouche, made up of the representation of a seated Asia, perusing an array of precious items brought to her by a procession of oriental figures. Allard acknowledges his source of information for the map at lower right as  D. Nicholai Witsen.

Witsen held the important positions of Burgomaster of Amsterdam, Deputy to the States General and wrote on shipbuilding and geography. He had travelled to Russia over many years, collecting information that led to the creation of his monumental, six-sheet chart. Replying to the president of the Royal Society London, Witsen writes ‘Tis almost 28 years since I travelled into Russia, and being there for my own Satisfaction, I not only conversed with the Inhabitants of those Countries, but with Tartars of all sorts. There I grew first informed not only of the Situation of those Parts, but of such countries, as lay remote. I have not ceased from that time, by various Methods I have found, to send Letters unto and received Answers from the most Northern and North-East parts of the World. Tis is from this Fund, which has been gathering for so many years, and by comparing and adjusting all these Materials, and by persevering without intermission there in, that the Map (of Tartary) is made up’. The map Witsen refers to was published in 1687 and is of great rarity, due to that fact they were not made available to the general public but only presented to personal acquaintances.

Allard issued this map in his Magnum Thetrum Belli and not his Atlas Minor, as often incorrectly stated.

From  Allard Magnum Thetrum Belli

Reference; Imago Mundi (Keuning) Vol 11, 1967 p.95-110, Koeman I, All 3, p.47 (51)