Maps · Engravings · City plans
Six centuries of the Ottoman world, in copper and ink
Antique maps and prints tracing the empire from its rise in the 1300s to the First World War, along with the Greek and Roman lands that came before it.
Maps · Engravings · City plans
Antique maps and prints tracing the empire from its rise in the 1300s to the First World War, along with the Greek and Roman lands that came before it.
Themes
The Ottoman Empire rose in the early 1300s and lasted until the First World War. Its rapid expansion through the 17th century, and its long decline afterward, are both recorded in antique maps and prints. The same sheets also show how much cartography and printing improved over those centuries.
These works reach back further than the Ottomans. Many maps keep the old Greek and Roman names of cities and regions. City plans show buildings that have long since vanished, and engravings of people in traditional dress record daily routines, customs and values that would otherwise be lost.
They invite us to imagine walking ancient streets and talking with locals about their joys and worries. Or arriving in Constantinople on a spring morning aboard a sailing ship, seeing the city for the first time and falling in love with it. Life moves at a slower pace here, with no cars or phones, yet it has a texture and meaning of its own.
The reality of those centuries was far more complicated than any engraving suggests. Even so, it's hard not to be captivated, whether by the quiet charm of Melling's views or the luminous scenes of J.F. Lewis.
