A highly detailed 16th-century copperplate engraved map of the Ottoman Empire, titled "Turcici Imperii Descriptio," covers the region from southeastern Europe and the Mediterranean to the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf. In the bottom-left corner, an ornate architectural cartouche features the title, decorated with two winged putti holding a sun-shield, seated atop a structure supported by scrolls and aquatic monsters. Sailing ships of the period are illustrated in the Mediterranean and Arabian Seas. Mountain ranges, forests, and deserts are represented with pictorial symbols.

TVRCICI IMPERII DESCRIPTIO. Description of the Turkish Empire.

REGNI PERSIAE PARS, QUOD HODIE A SOPHIS GUBERNATUR. Part of the Kingdom of Persia, which today is governed by the Sophis.

[Geographical Prose Notes]

Samarkand, formerly the royal seat of Tamerlane, the great emperor of the Tartars.

This place is called Gelychalat by Marco Polo in Book 1, Chapter 4. It is perhaps the Martiana marsh, mentioned by Strabo as being near the borders of Assyria, Armenia, and Media. In this place, fishing occurs for 40 days during the spring season; in the other months, no fish appear. This is also a place to which the Jews were dispersed, as indicated by their history and the books of the prophets; it seems they were deported to these neighboring regions.

The Kingdom of Ormuz has its own king, yet it is a tributary to the King of Persia. It contains the entire coast of the Persian Gulf up to the Euphrates. It is situated at 5 degrees of latitude and 30 minutes, and 103 degrees of longitude. It covers not only a small part of the region near the strait, but it is situated on an island in the strait of the same name within the Persian Gulf. It is a metropolitan city and a very famous trading center where merchants from every part of the world gather.

At Cape Rozanfre, formerly the Northern Promontory, there were in the memory of our fathers the borders of the Kingdom of Tunis and the Sultan of Egypt, but today the empire of the Solimans referring to the Ottoman Sultans, specifically Suleiman the Magnificent extends to this point and beyond.

Here Prester John, the king of all Ethiopia, rules far and wide.

Socotra, formerly Dioscuriada, is called by the inhabitants "Rhombo" of the Arabs, and for the deserts "Aben Alcom," from which they derive the name Socotorina.

[Compass Orientations]

• SEPTENTRIO. North.
• MERIDIES. South.
• ORIENS. East.
• OCCIDENS. West.

[Major Regional and Water Labels]

Europe & North:
AUSTRIA, TRANSYLVANIA, WALLACHIA, BULGARIA, ROMANIA, MACEDONIA, MOREA Peloponnese, CRETE, PART OF TARTARY.

Anatolia & Middle East:
ASIA MINOR, NATOLIA, AMASIA, CARAMANIA, CYPRUS, SYRIA, PALESTINE, MESOPOTAMIA, CHALDEA, ARMENIA, MEDIA.

Persia & Central Asia:
PART OF THE KINGDOM OF PERSIA, BACTRIA, SOGDIANA.

Africa:
EGYPT, BARCHA, Deserts of LIBYA, PART OF AFRICA, DAFILA, BARNAGASSO.

Arabia:
ARABIA DESERTA, ARABIA PETRAEA, AYAMAN Yemen, formerly ARABIA FELIX.

Seas & Waterways:
MEDITERRANEAN SEA, BLACK SEA original: "Mare Magiore," formerly "Pontus Euxinus", CASPIAN SEA original: "Mare de Bachu" or "Caspian and Hyrcanian Sea", RED SEA original: "Sinus Arabicus", PERSIAN GULF, ARABIAN SEA original: "Mare Rubrum".