Rare Ottoman Map of Europe by Mahmoud Raif Efendi

The rare Ottoman map of Europe by Mahmoud Raif Efendi, published in the Atlante Cedid (New Atlas), represents a valuable historical and cartographic document of pre-Napoleonic Europe. This atlas, the first folio ever printed in the Muslim world, includes only 50 copies, of which few complete specimens have survived, thus increasing the map's value and rarity. Following the border configuration outlined by the atlas of William Faden, British Royal Geographer, the map depicts European borders immediately before the great geopolitical transformations due to the Napoleonic wars. The representation of Poland is particularly unusual, as it still appears on the map despite its definitive partition in 1795, ten years before this map was printed.

The Atlante Cedid was created by Mahmoud Raif Efendi, a young and influential Ottoman bureaucrat who played a key role in the Ottoman Empire's first permanent embassy in London, established in 1793. Through meetings with high-ranking figures at the British court and relations with British military personnel, Raif Efendi acquired valuable European knowledge of geography and politics. The choice to copy and adapt William Faden's maps testifies to the intent to modernize and update Ottoman cartographic knowledge as part of the Nazam-i Cedid reforms desired by Sultan Selim III. Printed in Ottoman Turkish in Istanbul with limited printing resources, the Atlante Cedid and its map of Europe represent a cultural and scientific bridge between East and West in a period of great historical change.

Unique quality material

Print on handmade Amalfi paper
Sheet size: 40 x 30 cm
With frame: 43 x 33 cm
Material: artwork printed on very precious handmade Amalfi paper with deckled edges
Frame: Light brown, made of beech wood and handmade wood pulp