Arabia.

150 woodcut, engraved, and lithographed regional and general maps covering the Arabian peninsula, also including general maps of Asia and associated areas, all printed in Western Europe, various sizes, some occasional minor defects

a fine collection covering the entire period during which European map-makers and mariners developed accurate cartographic representations of the Arabian Peninsula. It also includes maps of the continents where Arabia is fully or partially included, regional maps which represent the peoples of ancient empires, and contemporaneous states such as the Turkish Empire or Persia. The collection is therefore a unique resource for the growth of knowledge of Arabia's land forms and topography over four centuries.

Some highlights include: the 1482 version of Ptolemy's map, the earliest in the collection; maps by and after Gastaldi, the master of the Italian Renaissance; examples of the golden age of Dutch and Flemish cartography, including maps by Mercator, Ortelius, de Jode, and Blaeu; and English and French maps by Speed and Sanson. The fierce competition between the European powers for access to the waters of the Arabian Peninsula is illustrated by the sea charts of Goos, de Wit, Doncker, Bellin and others. Other maps by Delisle, Bellin, Niebuhr and d'Anville are born out of eighteenth-century trading expeditions, and the development of military bases and trading outposts in Arabian, Persian, and Red Sea ports. The turn of the nineteenth-century saw a huge increase in scientific data gathered by European expeditions pushing for colonisation of the orient, leading to scholarly maps including the first of Riyadh, by Vandermaelen (1827), and other detailed maps by Musil, Philby, Doughty, Thesiger and others.

The collection charts the fascinating process by which myths and misconceptions about Arabia's shape and interior were gradually dispelled by the ever more accurate representations of a region that held the West in its thrall for centuries.

A full list is available on request.