Antique Plan of the City of Jeddah, Niebuhr Copper Engraving, 1776

This is an original antique copper engraved plan from 1776, plate LV of the first volume of Carsten Niebuhr's Voyage en Arabie. The caption below the plan reads Grondtékening der Stad Dsjidda. in Dutch and Plan de la Ville de Dsjidda. in French, meaning plan of the town of Jeddah.

The town lies at the left, enclosed on its landward side by a wall with round towers at the angles. Blocks of houses, shaded with dots, line the waterfront, and much of the walled ground behind them is filled with small triangular huts or tents. Numbers from 1 to 15 are engraved over the plan, keyed to the text, marking points on the wall, buildings in the town, features of the shore and a lone building, 13, outside the wall. The right half of the plan shows the approaches by sea. Long reefs and shoals, marked with crosses inside dotted lines, lie offshore, and rhumb lines radiate from a compass point with a fleur-de-lis. Anchors near the number 15 mark an anchorage among the reefs. Names are lettered in the water, among them Om Eddeluka and Om el Chermân. A scale from 100 to 800 Pass. Geom. runs along the foot of the plan.

The lower right corner below the plan is lettered T. K. f., the engraver's initials, and the plate number Tab. LV. is engraved at the upper right.

The plate belongs to the first volume of Niebuhr's Voyage en Arabie & en d'autres Pays circonvoisins, marked TOME PREMIER and Traduit de l'Allemand on its title page, which carries the imprint of S. J. Baalde at Amsterdam and J. van Schoonhoven and Comp. at Utrecht and the date MDCCLXXVI. The account was first published in German at Copenhagen; this is the French translation printed in Amsterdam and Utrecht. Carsten Niebuhr (1733 to 1815) was a German born surveyor in Danish service and the only member of the Danish expedition to Arabia (1761 to 1767), sent by King Frederick V of Denmark, to return alive.

Light uneven toning, browner toward the edges. Handling soiling along the bottom edge. All four corners are present. Minor edge wear, shallow nicks along the bottom.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.