[INDIA] Descriptio Chorographica Indiae Orientalis, Delineationem Imperii, Sine Regni Magni Mogol Exhibens

[Frankfurt, 1627. 15 1/8 x 12 7/16. Copper engraved map. Uncoloured, on laid paper. The first Modern European map of India.

Copper engraved map of modern-day India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, published by Wilhelm Fitzer the successor to Johann Theodor de Bry (1561-1623) and Johann Israel de Bry (1565-1609), the sons of Theodor de Bry. This version of the map includes the original Mughal seal with its contents in Persian Script. The map is closely related to that of William Baffin, its use of original script in Jahangir's dynastic seal in the upper right precludes the De Bry edition having been derived directly from the printed Baffin map. Baffin is widely understood to be the author of the manuscript map on which the printed map is based, having prepared it for Sir Thomas Roe's 1617 geographical commpendium on India. Susan Gole, in Early Maps of India, lists six states or editions of the Baffin map of India but did not record the present version. A comparison of this edition with the original Baffin and Purchas edition suggests that the Purchas was followed most closely, with some material changes to toponyms (such as "The Gate" having been replaced by "Porta Suretana"). The map appears in the very rare Volume XII (the penultimate volume) of De Bry's "Petite" Voyages, which was first published in 1627.

Susan Gole, Early Maps of India (refers).