Description

A small view shows Aden in Yemen. In the upper margin annotations in English from ca 1700.  The city was occupied by the Portuguese between 1513–1538 and 1547–1548, and by the Ottoman Empire between 1538–1547 and 1548–1645.

The view was first issued in Thesaurus philopoliticus (also Thesaurus Philo-Politicus, Ger. Politisches Schatzkästlein) by Daniel Meisner, engraved and published by Eberhard Kieser from1623 in Frankfurt am Main. The emblematic images in the front were made to ‚enlighten and educate the reader, and guide him to a better transition’ (den Leser belehren, erbauen und zu einem besseren Wandel führen). The work, which in the first edition only included 52 views. After its instant success the editors published following volumes, each including 52 new views and one volume with 50 views. The enlarged reprint from the next year already included 416 small views of the cities. In 1625 they started working on the Latin edition. By 1631 they Kieser printed new editions with the total of 830 views.

After Kieser’s death the same year the plates were bought by a Nuremberg art dealer Paulust Furst, who added letters and numbers in the upper right corner (each letter A-H for one volume and number 1-100 marking a page in a volume). Fürst also added coats of arms o the views and sometimes slightly changed the titles. He also changed the title oft he work into Sciographia Cosmica. As Meisner’s first edition, Fürst’s revised work was an instant success. The views from this work belong to the classics of miniature views of the 17th century.