"Aden, in, Arabia", Lasor a Varea, Alphonsus

This small but striking view depicts Aden in Yemen from the vantage of the Red Sea. The city is circled by hills, each capped with a castle. Aden was a crucial port for European traders in the Far East, as the engraving suggests with several ships in the surrounding waters. The engraving is taken from a plate by Francesco Valegio's Raccolta (1595); his faded imprint appears at bottom left. Another engraving, Adrianopoli, appears on verso and showcases the architecture of the Turkish city of Edirne. Lasor a Varea, whose real name was Raffaello Savonarola, published his two-volume scriptural and historical dictionary with nearly 500 maps that were taken from old plates by Valegio, Porcacchi, Rosaccio-Franco, and Magini, many of which were more than a century old, and often reworked. On a sheet of Latin text measuring 9.0 x 13.5".

References: Phillips (Atlases) #3475-11; Shirley (BL Atlases) T.LAS-1a #5.

Condition: A

On watermarked paper.