1635 Blaeu Map of Africa: Scarce Second State, Superb Original Color

This is a superb, original-color example of Willem Blaeu's 1617 atlas map of Africa, in the scarce second state from the 1635 edition of Blaeu's Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. It is one of the most desirable maps from the Dutch Golden Age of mapmaking. Norwich hailed it as 'one of the most decorative and popular of all the early maps of Africa.'

A Closer Look

The seas are filled with ships and sea monsters, and the land teems with elephants, ostriches, lions, and other beasts. The borders of this superb carte à figures depict the greatest African cities of the day along the top, while on each side, the borders display the natives of ten parts of the continent in their traditional dress. Although separated from Europe only by the Mediterranean Sea, Europeans were nearly as ignorant of this massive continent as they were of the remote portions of Asia or the Americas, so maps such as this one provided a glimpse into what amounted to a different world.

Sources

Blaeu's map is essentially a reduced version of his own 1608 wall map, which would provide the standard for virtually all mapping of Africa until the late 17th century. Blaeu's atlas map here, first engraved in 1617, is prized for its clarity and sharpness, presenting copious detail (and its many decorative features) without sacrificing legibility. The coastline is rich in toponomy, and the overall shape of the continent is accurate. However, points within the continent reveal European ignorance of Africa's interior, a condition that persevered well into the 19th century. The Nile, for example, is illustrated with its sources in the lakes of Zaire and Zaflan, an assumption inherited from the 2nd-century cartography of the Alexandrian geographer Claudius Ptolemy. The equally fictitious Lake Sachaf, derived from Laurent Fries' 1522 geography, appears in southern Africa, feeding the Zambere River, flowing to the Rio de Spirito Santo. The Cuama River is shown north of the Rio de Spirito Santo but unlike earlier maps - including Blaeu's own wall map - the Cuama is given its own source instead of sharing a source at Lake Sachaf. The Niger River is shown running, essentially, in the wrong direction: it is shown emptying into the Senegal River after having flowed from an imagined Lake Niger in the general vicinity of what is now the Central African Republic. (An understanding of the complex Niger River system was not realized until 1890s.)

The Cities

Along the top border of the map are nine medallions containing views of African cities of importance: Tanger (Tangiers) in northwestern Morocco, the city of Ceuta in northern Africa (now Spanish, then Portuguese), Alger (Algiers), Tunis, Alexandria, and Cairo. All six of these are coastal cities in North Africa that, from classical times, were within the European orbit. The remaining three cities represented - Mozambique, St. Georges de la Mina, and Canaria (Tenerife, in the Canary Islands) reflect the growing reach of Europe during the age of discovery. All were important ports for the circumnavigation of the African continent, with Portuguese forts established by the time this map was published. Of these, the Castle de la Mina is notorious as a staging area for the transatlantic slave trade. Most of the views show remote fortress towns, in contrast to the sprawling ancient cities of Alexandria and Cairo. Blaeu's source for these views was the Braun and Hogenberg Civitates Orbis Terrarum, the first printed 'city atlas' or collection of city plans and views from all over the explored world.

Cartes à Figures

During the Dutch Golden Age of mapmaking in the first half of the 17th century, maps' decorative elements reached a height that would be alluded to but seldom matched in later periods of cartography. Cartes à Figures (maps with human figures in decorative borders) were at the pinnacle of Dutch decorative cartography. These decorations served a function: atlas maps of the day were not meant to guide the prospective traveler but were intended to inform the literate layperson what the rest of the world was like. The upper decorative border of this map, with its city plans and views, communicates how the denizens of Africa live. The border decorations on the left and right are meant to show what the denizens of Africa looked and dressed like. Typically, these pair a man and a woman for each region. Blaeu's Africa features Moroccans, Egyptians, Senegalese, Abyssinians, Guinean merchants, Mozambicans, a couple from Cape Lopez in Gabon, a royal couple from Madagascar, a Congolese soldier and his wife, and a fearsome portrayal of the denizens of the Cape of Good Hope.

Cartes à figures were deluxe productions and seldom produced for narrow, regional maps save in scarce separate issues, and not all mapmakers included them in regular atlases. Willem Blaeu's world and continental maps are considered classics of the form.

Publication History and Census

This map was first engraved in 1617 and offered as a separate issue. From 1630 to 1672 it was included in Blaeu's atlases. No later printings of the map are known, indicating that the copperplate was among those destroyed in the 1672 fire that finished the company. The second state of this map (of which this is an example) was separately issued in 1621 and appeared in Blaeu's 1630 and 1631 Appendix and Blaeu's Theatrum. A third state appeared around 1647, that being the most common variant. The verso typography here is consistent with the 1635 Latin edition of Blaeu's Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, placing it among the earliest acquirable issues of the map. The map and its atlas are well-represented in institutional collections, and the map occasionally appears on the market in its later issues. Examples with original color of this quality, however, have grown very scarce.