This
large beautifully hand coloured original antique map of
Africa was published by
Nicholas Visscher in 1690.
This map has been professionally cleaned in
the past and backed in light archival tissue and heavily
pressed. This has not detracted from the map and has given
it a very clean appearance.
Background: 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. (M&B; Tooley)
General Description:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color: - off white
Age of map color: - Original & later
Colors used: - Red, yellow, green, blue
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 22 1/2in x 19 1/2in (570mm x 495mm)
Plate size: - 21 1/2in x 17 1/4in (540mm x 435mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - Professionally cleaned
Verso: - Backed in light archival tissue
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
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