Antique Map of the Congo Region by De Winter (c.1680)

Description: Antique map titled 'Royaume de Congo'. Map of Gabon, the Congo and Angola from Cape Lopez and Sao Tomé to approximately the border with present-day Namibia. The map is fully engraved with mountains, rivers, forests and trails and decorated with a strapwork title cartouche. Engraved by Antoine d'Winter for a Dutch edition of Sanson's pocket atlas.

Artists and Engravers: Nicholas Sanson d'Abbeville (1600 - 1667) and his descendents were important French cartographer's active through the 17th century. Sanson started his career as a historian where, it is said, he turned to cartography as a way to illustrate his historical studies. In the course of his research some of his fine maps came to the attention of King Louis XIII who, admiring the quality of his work, appointed Sanson 'Geographe Ordinaire du Roi'. Sanson's duties in this coved position included advising the King on matters of Geography and compiling the royal cartographic archive. Sanson's corpus of some three hundred maps initiated the golden age of French Cartography.