18th Century Map of Arabia with a Fine Border

“De Kusten van Arabie, het Roode Meer, en Persize Zee van Bassora voorby ‘T Nau van Ormus Tot aan den Indus, Guzaratte en Kaap Comorin”

Published in Leiden, 1729.

The coasts of Arabia and India, first published in 1707, but this example published in the monumental 27-volume ‘Galérie Agréable du monde’, with a new sub-title and the elaborate frame-like border.

Originally this map was published to illustrate the voyages of Dom Duarte de Menezes (pre-1488 to after 1539). He was the Portuguese governor of Tangier from 1508-21 & 1536-39 and governor of Portuguese India from 1522 to 1524.
Although he was successful as a military commander, as a governor he was considered disastrous.
After his first tenure at Tangier his successor. Vasco da Gama, accused him of corruption and had him sent back to Portugal in chains, where he spent nearly seven years in prison before his powerful friends could arrange his rehabilitation.