DE WIT

CONSTANTINOPOLIS

Frederıck DE WIT

Amsterdam, ca. 1720

53 x 60 cm., Framed

Copper engraving, printed on laid paper, in excellent condition.

A stunning panoramic view of Constantinople, by the celebrated Dutch cartographer Frederick de Wit.

Flourishing around 1650, Frederick de Wit was one of the most successful map engravers in Amsterdam. Following the decline of the Blaeu and Jansson publishing houses, de Wit cornered the cartographic publishing market by acquiring a vast array of used copper plates. His prolific business encompassed almost every aspect of map making from sea charts and atlases to town books and town plans; he even produced large wall maps. His work, which is finely engraved and superbly executed, was extremely popular and continued to be published even after his death. This impressive engraving is a striking town view of Constantinople in Turkey, and would have been originally published as part of a larger work.