Johannes Blaeu

A 17th century Dutch map of Arabia by Johannes Blaeu.

• Johannes Blaeu (Dutch).
• Arabia.
• Amsterdam: circa 1665.
• Original color.
• This work is presented unframed.

A Dutch map of Arabia, decorated with an elaborate title cartouche featuring an incense caravan and a scale cartouche with cherubs with a cross-staff.

Due to the lack of new information, Blaeu still depicts the peninsula divided into the three Roman Provinces, using the Ptolemaic names: ' Arabia Felix', 'Arabia Petraea' and 'Arabia Deserta.'

'Arabia Felix' (Latin for 'Loyal Arabia') covers the majority of the Peninsula, even though the term relates to the comparatively fertile regions of present day Asir and Yemen.

'Arabia Petraea' (Stony Arabia) is located in North West Arabia and was a frontier province of imperial Rome.

'Arabia Deserta' refers to the desert interior, which was populated by nomadic tribes who frequently invaded richer lands, of which the cartographic detail is mostly imaginary.