This large scale,
exquisitely
hand coloured & uncommon original antique map of
Africa by
Alexis Hubert Jaillot -
after
Nicolas Sanson - was engraved in 1692 - the date is
engraved in the scale cartouche. This is one of the most
beautifully presented Jaillot maps I have seen for a
while, fantastic colour, clean and heavy paper and a
deep clear impression, signifying an early pressing.
This map is not to be confused with the later smaller
more common version of the map published by Jaillot
There are 5 editions of this map 1674, 1685, 1690, 1692
& 1695.
There are 16 recorded sales of this map between 1983 &
2010.
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.
After
Nicolas Sanson, Hubert Jaillot and Pierre Duval were the
most important French cartographers of the seventeenth
centuries. Jaillot, originally a sculptor, became interested
in geography after his marriage to the daughter of Nicolas
Berey (1606-65), a famous map colourist, and went into
partnership in Paris with Sanson's sons. There, from about
1669, he undertook the re-engraving, enlarging and
re-publishing of the Sanson maps in sheet form and in
atlases, sparing no effort to fill the gap in the map
trade left by the destruction of Blaeu's printing
establishment in Amsterdam in 1672. Many of his maps were
printed in Amsterdam (by Pierre Mortier) as well as in
Paris. One of his most important works was a magnificent
sea atlas, Le Neptune François, published in 1693 and
compiled in co-operation with J D Cassini. This was
re-published shortly afterwards by Pierre Mortier in
Amsterdam with French, Dutch and English texts, the charts
having been re-engraved. Eventually, after half a century,
most of the plates were used again as the basis for a
revised issue published by J N Bellin in 1753.(Ref:
Tooley; M&B)
General Description:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color: - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Yellow, green, red, brown.
General color appearance: - Authentic and fresh
Paper size: - 38in x 24 1/2in (970mm x 620mm)
Plate size: - 35in x 23in (890mm x 585mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - Bottom centerfold re-joined, no loss
Verso: - None
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