1522 / 1535 Waldseemüller / Fries map of Southern Africa

This is Laurent Fries' 1535 edition of the earliest acquirable modern mapping of South Africa, among the first to reveal the discoveries of the Portuguese explorers Dias and De Gama. This map represents an effort to reconcile two contrasting depictions of southern Africa by Martin Waldseemüller: the 1513 Tabula Moderna Secunde Porcionis Aphrice, and the 1516 Carta Marina. In the past, it has been erroneously described as a more decorative version of the former, but closer study reveals it as cartographically distinct and independently significant.

Earliest Modern Mapping of South Africa

The map depicts Africa south of the Equator - this, alone, brands it a modern map: Ptolemy and his contemporaries were in doubt that human beings could survive the Equatorial regions of the world, much less traverse them. Ptolemy also supposed Africa would ultimately connect to China and that the Indian Ocean was entirely landlocked. The present map reveals the Portuguese discoveries to the contrary, that it was possible to sail around Africa, reaching the Indian Ocean from the Atlantic. The bold text of the map reads, 'This part of Africa remained unknown to the ancients.' In the sea to the southeast, Portugal's King Manuel I is portrayed riding a sea monster, carrying a scepter and a Portuguese flag, to express Portugal's command of the sea and celebrate his nation's victorious circumnavigation of Africa. (The Latin caption reads Victory of Emanuel, the most Christian King of Portugal').

The Scope and Content of the Map

The map, a skillful and attractive woodcut, depicts Africa from the Equator to the Cape of Good Hope, about 34° south. Longitude is not specified, but the mapped region spans from the island of São Tomé in the west to Madagascar in the east. A Latin text reads, 'this part of Africa remained unknown to the Ancients,' acknowledging that the area depicted here lay beyond the regions mapped and described by Ptolemy and other historians of antiquity. The Indian Ocean bears two names: Sinus Barbaricus, Ptolemy's term for what he believed to be the westernmost extent of a landlocked Indian Ocean, and Mare Prassodum, a modern term for the waters of the Indian Ocean found by mariners sailing beyond Prassum Promont, the southernmost limit of Ptolemaic geographical knowledge.

Sources Known and Unknown

The South African coastline and outline of Madagascar on this map, as well as on Waldseemüller's 1513 and 1516 maps, all derive from the 1502 Cantino Planisphere. The placenames on all three maps reflect a common source in the Cantino. Cantino is also the source of the mountain range here identified as the Mountains of the Moon - Mons Lune including the fontes nili, the source of the Nile.

That the decorative elements on this map - the seated kings, elephants, snakes and monsters, and descriptive text blocks - are drawn from Waldseemüller's 1516 Carta Marina. But Fries was not only drawing decorative features from that source, but also geographical information, including several mountain ranges, a lake, a river system, and an array of towns. Unlike the broad outline of the map, these details do not ultimately derive from the Cantino Planisphere, and Waldseemüller's source for them is not clearly known.

Madagascar and Sailing the Mare Prassodum

The island of Madagascar is so named, and is modeled after the 1502 Cantino. Waldseemüller's source for its accompanying text also appeared on his 1516 map and was paraphrased from Marco Polo. It describes Madagascar as an island 'about 4000 miles in circumference, with an abundance of lions, elephants, camels, and other animals. Its inhabitants are Musli .'

Moving the Mountains of the Moon

On the 1513 map, the interior of Africa south of the Mons Lune is blank. Here, it is filled with engraving, and the assumption that Fries filled it out of horror vacui is understandable. But all of these elements are drawn, not from Fries' imagination, but from the 1516 Carta Marina. In doing so, he introduced some errors: for example, the present map includes the name 'Hengi Zedaici' as if it were the name of the king seated nearby: these names appear as 'Henggi' and 'Zedaia' on the 1516 map, on which they refer not to the seated figure but to towns.

The real trouble arises with the horizontal mountain range at approximately 14° south. Fries did not name these, but on the Carta Marina Waldseemüller did: Montes Lune, the Mountains of the Moon, in disagreement with his own 1513 map. Fries may have wanted to incorporate the more detailed depiction of Africa offered on the Carta Marina, but was baffled by his source's inconsistency. The placement of the Mountains of the Moon on the 1513 map did more closely approximate that of the Cantino Planisphere, but we do not know if Fries had access to that source. Indeed, Waldseemüller's reasons for moving those mountains further south in his 1516 map are opaque because his source for this entire area of the map is likewise unknown.

The Lake

To the west of this lower iteration of the Mountains of the Moon is shown a lake with several rivers. Here, it is named Saphat. It ranks among the features drawn from the 1516 map, where it was named Sahaf and featured more rivers flowing into (or through?) it. A Lacalf or Sacalf Lacus appears in a similar position on the 1507 Waldseemüller. It does not appear on the 1502 Cantino. Despite its obscure origins, with a variety of spellings, this lake remained on maps of Africa for centuries to come.

An Array of Towns

North of the lake are six towns: Elesia, Megmades, Coema, Sagara, Mechmanco, and Galilla. These, among perhaps a dozen others, are also on the 1516 map, albeit with variations in spelling. Such assemblages of names are tantalizing, as they suggest firsthand reports. We have been unable to trace any such source to which Waldseemüller might have had access, but they seem to appear first on his 1516 Carta Marina. A different assemblage of placenames appears on the 1507 map, and to the southwest of the lake, not to the north of it.

Snakes and Basilisks

To the west of the lake is another mountain range, running north-south; pictured with it are two snakes and a rooster-like monster with bat wings, and a serpent's tail. The accompanying Latin text reads, 'Under these mountains are the Basilisks and Mergulis (?), and the whole region is deserted because of them.' With some typographical variations, this is drawn completely from the 1516 Carta Marina, and, as with the other new details on that map, Waldseemüller's source is not known.

An Imperfect Synthesis

Fries was trying to improve the 1513 Waldseemüller map both in terms of attractiveness and content. Throughout Fries' work, the Ptolemaic maps and tabulae modernae alike feature new decorative elements, geographic details, and descriptive content. Consistently, he drew details from the Carta Marina, which represented, in many ways, the greatest modern work of Waldseemüller's career. Whether or not Fries and the great geographer Waldseemüller knew each other - and they may well have - by the time he was working on this project, Waldseemüller had died and was not available for consultation. In the face of inconsistencies between his sources' 1513 and 1516 works, Fries appears to have had to muddle through.

Publication History and Census

This map was first issued in the 1522 Lorenz Fries Strasbourg edition of Ptolemy's Geographia. A further edition was produced in that same city in 1525. Afterward, two further ed tions of 1535 and 1541 were published in Lyons and Vienne-in-the-Dauphane, respectively. The editor of the 1535 edition, Michael Villanovus (Servetus), was tried for heresy in 1553 and burned at the stake. Reportedly, Calvin ordered copies of the Servetus edition burned. Consequently, maps from the 1535 edition (of which this is a representative) are scarce. Overall, the four editions of Fries' Ptolemy are well represented in institutional collections. We see nine separate examples of this edition in OCLC.