Antique Blaeu Map of Africa, Madagascar and the Barbary Coast, 1642

About this sheet

Blaeu's map of the African continent, titled on the plate Africae nova descriptio. The whole continent is laid out from the Mediterranean and the Canaries to the Cape, with the Atlantic named Oceanus Aethiopicus, the equator and both tropics ruled across it, and Madagascar, called on the plate the isle of Saint Laurence, in the Indian Ocean. Inland the map is filled with the kingdoms and peoples that European geography then believed in: Libya Interior, the Garamantes, Nubia, Benin, the Mandingo and Bagamoyo country, and the desert called Sarra. Mozambique, Zanzibar, Melinde and the Cape Verde islands are named on the coasts. This is one of the great seventeenth century maps of Africa, a foundation piece for any collection of the continent, and the most valuable class of sheet in this volume.

The Blaeu house of Amsterdam was the greatest cartographic publisher of the Dutch golden age. Willem Jansz Blaeu began the atlas that his son Joan Blaeu carried to its full extent, and the Dutch text edition, Toonneel des Aerdriicx ofte Nieuwe Atlas, set a standard for engraving, paper and typography that no rival in Europe matched. The copper plates were cut with great delicacy, the title cartouches were designed as ornaments in their own right, and the sheets were printed on heavy laid paper that has survived three and a half centuries remarkably well.

Blaeu maps have been collected continuously since the seventeenth century and are the benchmark against which other Dutch cartography is measured, so a sheet from this atlas is a serious piece of the history of the book as well as a map. A large Blaeu plate is one of the few antique maps that can carry a wall on its own.

The sheet is in good condition for its age, with toning, soiling and scattered spots in the margins and a frayed upper edge with small chips; the centre fold is as issued and the image is clean.

This is an original antique map, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.