Antique Maps of Africa

[Africa]

Sebastian Munster
Africa...

Basle, c.1580. Woodcut, printed area 130 x 160mm, set in a page of Italian text.
Munster's smaller map of Africa. NORWICH: 5.
MUNS0026

[African Natives]

Jan Huygen van Linschoten.
Æthiopum e Moçambyque...

Amsterdam, c.1596. 250 x 320mm. Coloured. Tape stains in margins.
Depictions of four African natives, from Abyssinia and Ethiopia, engraved by Johannes à Doeticum. The title, written in Latin and Dutch, tells how the Mohametans call the natives 'Caffres', or 'unbelievers'.
LINS0001

[Fine map of Africa]

Gerard Mercator
Africa Ex magna orbis terre descriptione...

Amsterdam, Jodocus Hondius, 1609. 380 x 470mm. Coloured.
Prepared by Gerard Mercator Junior for the posthumous third volume of his grandfather's atlas, this example comes from the first French edition. The title is within a superb strapwork cartouche.
MERC0001

[Decorative map of Africa]

Jacob von Sandrart.
Accuratissima Totius Africæ Tabula.

Nuremberg, 1700. 490 x 575mm. Original colour. Narrow margin top left.
A most decorative map of Africa. It still bases the course of the Nile on Ptolemy. Interestingly the map was engraved by Johann Baptist Homan, a couple of years before he founded his own publishing firm. NORWICH: 61.
SAND0001

[Africa with elephant, crocodile and ostrich]

Tobias Conrad Lotter.
Africa...

Augsburg, c.1770. 455 x 590mm. Original body colour with later additions to the cartouche. .
Map of Africa with a title cartouche featuring an elephant, crocodile and ostrich.
LOTT0001

[Decorative map of Africa]

Georg Matthaus Seutter.
Africa Iuxta Navigationes et Observationes Recentissimas Aucta...

Augsburg, J.M.Probst, c.1770. 495 x 570mm. Coloured.
A large and decorative map, filled with fictitious detail. The title cartouche, lower left, features a dragon, crocodile, natives and pyramids. TOOLEY: p.110; NORWICH: 80.
SEUT0024

[The route of Solomon's ships to the fabled Ophir]

Benard.
Carte ou est tracée la route que tenoient les flottes de Salomon dans leurs voyages des trois ans en partant du Golphe de l'Élan por aller à Ophio et Tarshish...

Paris, c.1770. Coloured. 700 x 310mm. Bindiong folds flattened.
Map of eastern Africa, showing the routes taken by King Solomon's treasure ships from Eilat in Israel south to Sofala in Mozambique, where the mines of Ophir described in the bible were believed to be. Solomon received a cargo of gold, silver, sandalwood, precious stones, ivory, apes and peacocks from Ophir every three years. Benard engraved the maps for the French edition of Cook's Voyages.
BENA0013