

Two decorative maps of the Holy Land on one sheet.
They extend along the Mediterranean from Lebanon and present-day Syria to Gaza.
This pair of maps offers a fascinating comparison of the Holy Land in ancient and modern times. The historical map on the right is divided into 12 tribes of Israel separated by hand-coloured borders. The explanatory text below describes the successive evolution of the names given to the land and the governments.
The modern map on the left describes the division of the territory between the Emirs of the Pasha of Damascus and the Sangiacs governors of the Turkish regions. The explanatory text gives explanations of the current distribution of the territory.
This map was published in the "Atlas ou recueuil de cartes geographiques" by Fer.
Nicolas de Fer (1646-1720), was an engraver, geographer, titled geographer of the King and active from 1687 to 1720. He began his apprenticeship at the age of 12 with an engraver. In 1687, he took over the map trade from his mother after the death of his father, Antoine de Fer, a print and map merchant who died in 1673, and executed more than 600 maps or plans: frontier maps, maps of the new conquests of Louis XIV, cities fortified by Vauban, voyages and discoveries of new territories. In his main work, the Atlas Curieuse, he published several maps of the Americas and the West Indies. At his death, his sons-in-law, Guillaume Danet and Jacques-François Besnard, also engravers, continued Nicolas de Fer's activity on their own account.