Anatolia - Turkey

Natoliae Sive Asia Minor

Original 17th-Century Map of Anatolia (Asia Minor)

Published by Willem Janszoon Blaeu, Amsterdam, ca. 1630

This finely engraved and visually arresting antique map titled “Natoliae Sive Asia Minor” depicts the historical region of Anatolia—modern-day Turkey—at the crossroads of Europe and Asia. Created by Willem Janszoon Blaeu, one of the most influential Dutch cartographers of the 17th century, this map exemplifies the grandeur and precision of the Dutch Golden Age of cartography.

Rendered in Blaeu’s classic style, the map is filled with coastal details, mountain ranges, rivers, and cities, all labeled in elegant Latin script. The map spans from the Black Sea (Pontus Euxinus) in the north to the Mediterranean (Mare Mediterranei) in the south, with Cyprus clearly shown in the bottom center and the Aegean islands richly detailed to the west.

Decorative elements include:

• A bold title cartouche in the lower right corner
• A mileage scale framed with scrollwork
• A dedication cartouche (lower left), indicating the map’s original place in an atlas volume
• Ornate calligraphy and sea monsters, as well as a galleon at sea—hallmarks of early modern cartographic embellishment

Details:

• Title: Natoliae Sive Asia Minor
• Cartographer: Willem Janszoon Blaeu
• Publisher: Blaeu, Amsterdam
• Date: ca. 1630
• Medium: Copperplate engraving on laid paper
• Language: Latin
• Dimensions: 35,5 x 48 cm
• Condition: Very good; strong impression on clean paper, strengthened at back on middlefold , wide margins. Verso Latin text 
• VAT: Margingoods

Significance:

This map presents Asia Minor, the ancient cradle of civilizations from the Hittites to the Byzantines, at a time when Western European interest in the Ottoman Empire and the Eastern Mediterranean was at its peak. It combines geographic accuracy, classical references, and artistic elegance, making it a prized work for collectors of antique maps, early modern history, or classical geography.