"Tartaria sive Magni Chami Imperium", Blaeu, (Family)

This great map of Tartaria covers all of eastern Asia between the Caspian Sea and northern China and Manchuria. Being one of the most remote regions of Asia, it was among the last to be properly explored and mapped. This map combines the knowledge obtained by the English and Dutch explorers as far as the Ob River with the balance of the map based on the reports of Marco Polo and the Greek classics. The deserts are filled with a wild assortment of devils and dragons, being held at bay from China by the Great Wall. Explorers flank the distance scale and the title is symbolically engraved onto the saddle blanket of a camel, representing the trade over the Silk Road. This map is nearly identical to Jansson's map of the same title, but includes meridians and degrees of longitude at top and bottom. Dutch text on verso, published between 1642-48.

References: Van der Krogt (Vol. II) #8050:2.

Condition: A

Full contemporary color on a wide-margined sheet with a centerfold separation that enters 1" into map image at bottom and a short tear in top blank margin that have been archivally repaired. There is a bit of show-through of text on verso.