La Palestine, Lodovico Aureli, [Italy: ca. 1840-1850]

Pencil and watercolor on vellum (19 x 27 3/4 in.; 483 x 705 mm). Old red wax seal. Some slight staining and minor imperfections in the parchment. Matted, glazed, and framed; not examined outside of the frame.

Hand-drawn and signed panoramic view of the Holy Land featuring representations of the topography and cities of ancient Israel.

This manuscript map includes renderings of fifty-nine major sites of interest in and around the Holy Land – from Damascus in the north to Hebron in the south – each one numbered and labeled below in Italian and French. The Benezit Dictionary of Artists records that the map’s creator, Lodovico Aureli (1816-1865), had the title of Professor of Ornamental Drawing at the Bologna Academy.