Magni Mogolis Imperium de Novo Correctum et Divisum Per F. De Witt [Set of 2]

a) Cornelis Mortier after Frederik de Wit
Magni Mogolis Imperium de Novo Correctum et Divisum Per F. De Witt
Circa 1710
Original hand-coloured copper-engraving on paper
16 x 20 in (40.64 x 50.8 cm)

Earlier Covens & Mortier issues were finished with light outline hand-colouring only, with provincial boundaries delicately picked out while interiors remained largely unwashed. The visual emphasis rests on engraved geography, river systems and nomenclature, presenting the Mughal Empire as a broadly continuous territorial entity, consistent with late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century atlas presentation.

b) Johannes Covens / Cornelis Mortier after Frederik de Wit
Magni Mogolis Imperium de Novo Correctum et Divisum Per F De Wit
Circa 1721
Copper-engraving on paper
16 x 20 in (40.64 x 50.8 cm)

Later Covens & Mortier issues are distinguished by full contemporary hand-colouring, with provinces washed internally in alternating tones and boundaries more emphatically reinforced. This colouring scheme heightens the legibility of internal political subdivision, particularly across Northern India and the Gangetic basin, and reflects evolving early eighteenth-century preferences for more visually articulated and display-orientated atlas sheets.

Both impressions derive from the same engraved copperplate. No changes are observed in engraving, geography, lettering, or iconography; the distinctions relate solely to the chronology of issue and hand-colouring programme, illustrating how Frederik de Wit’s cartographic model was re-presented by Covens & Mortier for different moments within the Dutch atlas trade.

Magni Mogolis Imperium—A Matched Pair of Dutch Golden Age Maps, Covens & Mortier after Frederik de Wit

Frederik de Wit’s Magni Mogolis Imperium is among the most authoritative and enduring European images of the Mughal Empire produced during the Dutch Golden Age of cartography. Originally engraved in Amsterdam in the late seventeenth century, the map presents the dominions of the “Great Mogul” at their greatest territorial extent, stretching from Persia and Afghanistan across Northern India to Bengal and southwards into the Deccan.

The geography synthesises maritime intelligence derived from Dutch East India Company activity with inland information drawn from earlier European accounts of Mughal administration. Major river systems—including the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra—structure the map’s interior, while provincial divisions and principal urban centres articulate the political geography of the empire. The western and southern coastlines, from the Gulf of Cambay and Surat to Goa and the Malabar Coast, are rendered with particular care, reflecting the practical navigational interests of Dutch commerce.

The map also preserves elements of early modern geographic theory, most notably the mythical Lake Chiamay, shown as the source of several major Southeast Asian rivers, a reminder of the speculative limits of European knowledge well into the eighteenth century. Richly embellished with a baroque title cartouche, allegorical figures, elephants along the Ganges, camels in the North-Western regions, and maritime vignettes, the composition exemplifies the decorative and technical refinement of Dutch atlas production.

Following de Wit’s death, the plate was acquired and reissued by Johannes Covens & Cornelis Mortier, ensuring the continued circulation of this influential image into the early eighteenth century.

(Set of two)

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