Palestine or the Holy Land by Alexander Keith Johnstone

Code: 53812

Date 1855

Lithograph edition with minimal original hand colouring. Overall size : 36.9 cms  x 46.7cms. Image size : 323mm x 427mm. Three scales of distance. Centre fold as published.  ‘Under Turkish rule, Palestine is comprised in the 2 great Governments of Damascus, E of the Jordan & Lebanon and Beirut or Sidon on the W which are again divided into Pcshalics, named from the principal towns, but as the boundaries of these are very uncertain, & frequently changed they cannot be put down on the Map’.   Explanation key to words of frequent occurences.  Sites of Battles marked.  Some toning to margins else very good condition.

A.K.Johnston trained as an engraver and cartographer and eventually, with his brother William, established the publishing house of W.& A.K. Johnston in 1826. They published maps, atlases and globes including the first physical globe produced in Britain which won him an award at the Great Exhibition of 1851 and which is now displayed in the premises of the Royal Geographical Society. His study of geography led to him pioneering the the development of thematic atlases such as the Physical Atlas of 1846 which illustrated the botany, geology, hydrology, meteorology and zoology of the world. He also worked with the Royal Geographical Society in planning expeditions to Africa and was a friend of David Livingstone.