Girolamo Ruscelli's 1561 Egypt and North East Africa

I attended the last Ottawa Antiquarian Book Fair. This is not a really big fair and the focus really is much more on books than maps, but there are the occasional vendors who have a good selection worth spending some time looking at.

I ended up buying two maps from a vendor I saw there (I actually didn't buy at the fair but contacted him months later to see if he still had them) who I don't think specialized in maps at all, but had a real range of materials for sale, the maps I chose being the apparent exception to the rule.

Here's the map, and what I've learned about it follows:

This is a projection of north east Africa, primarily Egypt, printed in 1561 by Girolamo Ruscelli.

Ruscelli himself was an interesting guy. He was into a bit of everything, including cartography, and apparently published a 'book of secrets' which aimed to answer some basic scientific questions, provide advice on matters related to science and perhaps dabbled in some alchemy as well.

This map is one of a number he published in his revision of Ptolemy's Geography. There's a link to it, with a high quality image here, where you can see it's on sale for USD$125 (I paid much less for it, which is very satisfying).

There is much that I don't know about this region, and it's difficult for me to comment too heavily on the map, but when I saw it, having been to Egypt, I knew I wanted it.

The map has some interesting elements, for example, showing off the cities of Cairo and Alexandria. Having a strangely representative delta of the Nile, and showing what appears to be some sizable islands in the Nile

The map also seems to show the Nile having three southern branches, different than the two (Blue and While Niles). The rivers on the map are not particularly well labeled, however, so it's hard to be sure what they refer to.



This is one of two maps by the same cartographer I bought from the same vendor and it's interesting for its age, the history behind it and it's producer and of course the subject matter. Egypt was and is a source of fascination to many for many reasons. I'm lucky to have such an early representation of it.

The Erdapfel Globe

Through the wonders of twitter I came across a fabulous bit of map history: the Erdapfel (German for Earth Apple), sometimes called the Globe of Martin Behaim. This is possibly the oldest surviving globe in the world and it was made in Nuremberg in 1492, the year Columbus sailed.

Here's a picture of it taken from this site:

There's a lot that's amazing about this map. For one, the creator of the map was quite well traveled for a person living in the late 15th Century. He personally visited Portugal and western Africa. He therefore received some of his knowledge for this globe first hand.

The globe also shows an empty expanse between the western part of Europe and the far east. That said, the map maker used some of the same sources as Columbus, or at the very least, he agreed with the Italian explorer that the world was round. 

The map contains some beautiful illustrations, like this huge whale and boats:

It also contains a great many inaccuracies, as can be imagined. Most notably, perhaps, Japan is further north than shown on this map. Malaysia is shown as a large peninsula and the shape of Africa is incorrect including the shape of Madagascar which is shown as north of Zanzibar.

Anyone who really wants to get into the fine details of this map can take a look at this very comprehensive history here, or this shorter summary, here.

Anyone who wants to see the globe, would have to go to the Germanic Museum in Nuremberg. It seems that in 2011 there was an effort to have the globe digitized, but I can't find any place online where it's viewable.

In all cases, this is an amazing piece of world history and map history and a real, visual time capsule of European understanding of the world at a time contemporary to Columbus.

Add it to the Wishlist: Blau's 1635 Map of South Africa “Aethiopia Inferior, vel Exterior“

I recently wrote about my 1830 map of southern Africa. One reason I found that map so interesting, was that it showed an Africa which had tribes in it, but very few European powers were setting up colonies in that part of the world.

This map of Southern Africa from 1635 is on sale by Inter-Antiquariaat Mefferdt & De Jonge in the Netherlands (as always, no affiliation). Take a look:

The sellers of this map have some good information about it on their website. They note a few interesting points. For starters, this map pre-dates Dutch colonies in this part of the world. It also notes that much of this map is based off of Portuguese maps, which are of mixed-degrees of accuracy.

The map does a pretty good job showing off various coastal place names, but these seem to be the names of geographic features (i.e. bays, coves, etc). There are also a few towns shown in the interior, but like the 1830 map of the same region, this map does not try to pretend to know what lies just beyond the coast.

Also notable is the lack of names of tribes found on the 1830 map. It may be that Europeans were not sufficiently familiar with the inhabitants of Africa to name them. Part of South Africa on this map is named "Caffaria", or Kaffraria, which is a word that has at its root a derogatory term for Africans. The name of this place appears on the 1830s map as well, and so it seems that Europeans were either indifferent to the disrespectful use of the word, or that it only fell out of accepted usage at a later date.

It's also interesting that even though there was little European presence in Africa at the time of this map, Africa is still divided into regions, for example, Mozambique--with its wonderful little elephants--clearly has a border. It's not clear what exactly prompted the inclusion of this border.

Finally, aside from the historic interest and value of this map, being a Blau, one of the reasons it ends up on the wish-list is its aesthetic beauty. The cartouche, and this lonely little turtle in the Gulf of Guinea, make it a stunning map for the collection of anyone interested in this part of the world.

1830 Map of Southern Africa

One of my favorite maps--despite my having not yet framed it to display--is my 1830 Malte-Brun map of Southern Africa. This is one of a couple of maps I've bought from the Pageant Print Shop (who, as always, I have no affiliation with) in New York City. It's the kind of map shop I love. The space is packed in every nook and cranny with maps, generally well organized, but still vague enough that you have to search for the treasure you're looking for. The owners have been in the business for a long time and know what they're talking about and the experience shopping there is really pretty great.

Back to the map! There are many interesting features of this map, but my favorite comes down to two words across the middle of the map. Take a look at the picture and see if you can guess them.

Can you guess? The words are "unknown regions". What's more thrilling than a map that shows vast areas that are simply unknown? What carries more mystery, mystique, adventure and possibility than blanks on a map?!

Indeed, in my mind, one of the greatest things about this map is the contrast between the areas that have considerable detail and the regions that have basically none. For example, Madagascar is quite well detailed as is the Cape Colony, the nucleus of modern day South Africa, but so much else is lacking.

As one may expect, most of the detail is on the coasts. The seeds of some modern day countries are visible, for example Angola, Congo, Somalia and Abyssinia, which is modern day Ethiopia are on this map. The detail about some of the various peoples and their regions is also fascinating, and I think would be even more interesting if one knew more about African history than I do.

I do know enough, however, to know that the Sudan or "Soodan" on this map, does not stretch all the way across Africa and that Guinea is a relatively small country located on the West coast of Africa, not a large region to the north of the Gulf of Guinea. Benin does seem to be in about the right place though. I also know enough to point out that one of the most well known groups in Africa, the Zulu, who had a burgeoning empire at the time this map was made, seem to be nowhere to be found.

Even the very little detail that does exist in the regions marked as unknown seems incorrect or incomplete, which is really no surprise. For example, compare the length of the Congo River, and it's connection to other major rivers in the region to the relatively puny depiction it gets in this map.

The Congo River and rivers it connects with

The map itself does not have original color, but was hand colored by someone after publication. My copy also has a couple of minor stains on it, which diminish its value slightly, but as far as I'm concerned, it's a gorgeous, fascinating map with some amazing detail. I can't wait to get it framed and on the wall.