Oriens Persicus, India, &c.

1703

Copper engraving on paper

Print size: 8.5 x 12.25 in (21.5 x 31 cm)
Sheet size: 10.5 x 15.75 in (26.5 x 40 cm)
Folded: 10.5 x 7.75 in (26.5 x 20 cm)

A refined early-18th-century map of ancient Persia and India from Cellarius’s influential Geographia Antiqua — a cornerstone work that shaped European classical understanding of the East.

Christoph Cellarius’s Geographia Antiqua (first issued in 1686 and reprinted through the early 18th century) reshaped the teaching of classical geography across Europe. His maps, including the present Oriens Persicus, India, &c., sought to reconstruct the political world of antiquity through close reading of Greek and Latin sources. This sheet, from the important 1703 edition, presents a spacious and elegantly engraved vision of ancient Persia, the Indus basin, the north-western frontiers of India, Gedrosia (Makran), Arachosia, Carmania, Media, and Parthia.

Rather than relying on contemporary Dutch or Portuguese cartographic intelligence, Cellarius approached the East through Strabo, Ptolemy, Arrian, Curtius Rufus, and other classical authorities. The map thus reveals how early scholars imagined India’s western approaches not through direct observation, but through the textual tradition of the ancient world. Rivers, interior regions, and settlements are rendered with scholarly restraint, emphasising philological accuracy over nautical delineation.

Its broad geographical sweep over Greater Iran and northwest India makes this plate a valuable visual record of early European efforts to reconcile antiquity with newly emerging knowledge of Asia. The engraving itself, with its balanced lettering and classical proportions, represents the distinctive German academic style of the period.

Fine, clean examples from early 18th-century editions remain desirable among collectors of classical cartography, particularly when in strong impression and with untrimmed margins, as here.

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