A Chart of the Coast of Arabia, the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, Drawn from the Chart of the Eastern Ocean
Date:
1740
Description:
Abstract: This English map is a reprinting, with slight changes, of an earlier French map published in 1740 by order of Jean-Frédéric Phélypeaux, Count de Maurepas (1701-81), secretary of state under King Louis XV. The map was drawn from an earlier chart of the Eastern Ocean, “improv’d from particular surveys and regulated by astronomical observations.” This English edition of the de Maurepas map has a different title cartouche. The “Remarks” section at the lower right gives abbreviations for physical features on the map, and notes: “ A Stroke under ye Name of a Place denotes ye Latitude having been Observed by Astronomers, and a Prict [sic] Line by skilful Navigators.” Longitude is measured in degrees east of the “Isle de Fer” (Ferro, in the Canary Islands). Town names are as they appeared on the earlier French map. The Red Sea is listed as the “Red Sea or Arabic Gulf.”Physical description: 1 map; color; 22 x 24 centimeters