Catalog Archive
Auction 143, Lot 671

"[Map of Holy Land in Armenian]"

Subject: Holy Land

Period: 1746 (dated)

Publication:

Color: Hand Color

Size:
18.8 x 14.8 inches
47.8 x 37.6 cm
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This interesting map is from the press of the order of the Mekhgarists at the Monastery of San Lazzaro. The order was instrumental in the development of the Armenian literary languarge and published a number of Bibles, maps, engravings and atlases in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Based on French cartography, this decorative map of the Holy Land covers the region with the shoreline from Sidon to Gaza and inland to a large mountain range in Jordan. A large inset map shows the Nile Delta through the Middle East with the Wandering of the Children of Israel. The map is filled with fine detail and richly ornamented with ships, a sea monster, a mer-man, a hunter on horse-back spearing an ostrich, a lion, camels, and a large compass rose. The title and all legends are in Armenian script. Dated 1746 but likely published later in the eighteenth century.

References:

Condition: A

On sturdy, watermarked, wove paper with a few small spots.

Estimate: $600 - $700

Sold for: $950

Closed on 2/13/2013

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