This finely engraved
beautifully hand coloured original antique map of West
Africa - from Sierra Leone to Nigeria -
was engraved by Jan Jansson and was published in the
1639 French edition of Mercators
Atlas by Jan Jansson and Henricus Hondius.
These maps, published in the later editions of
Mercators atlas, are derived from the original maps
drawn and engraved by Gerald Mercator in the mid to late
16th century, published by his son Rumold as an atlas,
after his death, in 1595.
After two editions the plates were purchased by
Jodocus Hondius in 1604 and
continued to be
published until the mid 1630's when the plates were
re-engraved and updated by Jan Jansson and Henricus
Hondius.
Background:
Being part
of the Mediterranean world, the northern coasts of the
African continent as far as the Straits of Gibraltar and
even round to the area of the Fortunate Isles (the
Canaries) were reasonably well known and quite
accurately mapped from ancient times. In particular,
Egypt and the Nile Valley were well defined and the Nile
itself was, of course, one of the rivers separating the
continents in medieval T-O maps. Through Arab traders
the shape of the east coast, down the Red Sea as far as
the equator, was also known but detail shown in the
interior faded into deserts with occasional mountain
ranges and mythical rivers. The southern part of the
continent, in the Ptolemaic tradition, was assumed to
curve to the east to form a land-locked Indian Ocean.
The voyages of the Portuguese, organized by Henry the
Navigator in the fifteenth century, completely changed
the picture and by the end of the century Vasco da Gama
had rounded the Cape enabling cartographers to draw a
quite presentable coastal outline of the whole
continent, even if the interior was to remain largely
unknown for the next two or three centuries.
The first
separately printed map of Africa (as with the other
known continents) appeared in Munster's Geographia
from 1540 onwards and the first atlas devoted to
Africa only was published in 1588 in Venice by Livio
Sanuto, but the finest individual map of the century was
that engraved on 8 sheets by Gastaldi, published in
Venice in 1564. Apart from maps in sixteenth-century
atlases generally there were also magnificent marine
maps of 1596 by Jan van Linschoten (engraved by van
Langrens) of the southern half of the continent with
highly imaginative and decorative detail in the
interior. In the next century there were many attractive
maps including those of Mercator/Hondius (1606), Speed
(1627), Blaeu (1 630), Visscher (1636), de Wit (c.
1670), all embellished with vignettes of harbours
and principal towns and bordered with elaborate and
colourful figures of their inhabitants, but the interior
remained uncharted with the exception of that part of
the continent known as Ethiopia, the name which was
applied to a wide area including present-day Abyssinia.
Here the legends of Prester John lingered on and, as so
often happened in other remote parts of the world, the
only certain knowledge of the region was provided by
Jesuit missionaries. Among these was Father Geronimo
Lobo (1595-1678), whose work A Voyage to Abyssinia
was used as the basis for a remarkably accurate map
published by a German scholar, Hiob Ludolf in 1683.
Despite the formidable problems which faced them, the
French cartographers G. Delisle (c. 1700-22), J.
B. B. d'Anville (1727-49) and N. Bellin (1754) greatly
improved the standards of mapping of the continent,
improvements which were usually, although not always,
maintained by Homann, Seutter, de Ia Rochette, Bowen,
Faden and many others in the later years of the century.
(Ref: Tooley, Koeman)
General Description:
Paper thickness and
quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color: - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Green, red, orange, yellow, blue
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 22 1/2in x 19in (570mm x 490mm)
Plate size: - 20 1/2in x 15 1/2in (520mm x 390mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - None
Verso: - Bottom centerfold re-joined, no loss
If you wish to discuss this or any other item
please email or call - good luck, Simon.
Classical Images
61 (0) 409 551910 Tel
simon@classicalimages.com
|