HONDIUS, Jodocus. [Unrecorded carte-à-figures map of Africa]
Africæ Nova Tabula... Bologna, Francesco Sabatini, c.1670, 455 x 560mm Top margin restored with small manuscript reinstatement above Algier's view, A very fine dark impression.
A very rare and fine carte-à-figures map of Africa engraved by Pietro Todeschi, with vignette scenes of regional types to the left and right and cities along the top and bottom borders. This map is signed by Sabatini, in the dedication to a Bolognese nobleman, Marchese Andrea Paleotti, and his wife Christine Dudley, Duchess of Northumberland, grand-daughter of Sir Robert Dudley, the famous Elizabethan mariner and chart-maker, who was exiled to Florence in the early seventeenth century. Christine was born in 1649, and married Paleotti in 1663. A legendary beauty, she had a scandalous love-life, partly encouraged by her husband, who died in 1689. Published by Sabatini, one of the many fringe figures in Italian map-making and publishing in the late seventeenth century. Unfortunately, even accurate dates for his life and death elude us, while his work life can be established only by the rough dating of his maps dependent on the dedications on those maps bearing them, but he was apparently active as a printer and publisher (and possibly engraver) in the 1670s, probably in Bologna. This a late piracy of Dutch cartes-à-figure maps, popularised in the first part of the seventeenth century, although it seems likely that the map was plagiarised from intermediate Italian copies, perhaps by Stefano Scolari, an engraver and publisher (or possibly two different men) active from the 1640s to 1660s. Klaus Stopp, 'Drie Karten von Francesco Sabatini',., Mappæ Antiquæ Liber Amicorum Günter Schilder, p.281-285.; Günter Schilder, Monumenta Cartographica Neerlandici VI."Nederlandse foliokarten met decoratieve randen, 1604-1640"
[Ref: 10528]    £7,500.00 ($11,550 • €9,075 rates)

PTOLEMY, Claudius. [Ptolemaic Africa]
[Tabvla IIII Aphricae.] Gaspar & Melchior Treschel, Lyon, 1535, Latin text verso, coloured, 295 x 435mm.
Ptolemaic Africa, with no suggestion of the Cape of Good Hope, and with the Nile marked as well as its supposed source in the "Mountains of the Moon". The texts on the back of the maps have been set within decorative woodcuts, said to be the work of Hans Holbein and Gray of Basle. From an edition of Ptolemy using the translation of Pichheymer, but edited by Michael Villanovus, better known as Servetus. He was burnt at the stake for heresy in 1553, with one of the pieces of evidence against him being a comment on the verso of the map of modern Palestine doubting that the Promised Land was as fertile as the Bible makes out. Considering that this also appears in the 1522 edition (not edited by Servetus) this appears to have been a little unfair. It is said that copies of this book were added to his pyre on the orders of Calvin. PASTOREAU pg. 381 (15); NORWICH Map 287.
[Ref: 10939]    £1,500.00 ($2,310 • €1,815 rates)

MUNSTER, Sebastian. [Early Woodblock map of Africa]
Africa, Libya, Morland mit allen Künigreichen... Basle, c.1556, German text edition. Woodcut, printed area 270 x 340mm.
Munster's famous map of Africa, the first to show the whole continent. A one-eyed giant is seated over Nigeria, representing the mythical tribe of the 'Monoculi', and an elephant fills southern Africa. Also marked are several kingdoms, including that of Prester John, and 'Meroë', the mythical tombs of the Nubian Kings. The large text box contains a guide for sailing from Cadiz to Calecut in India. NORWICH: 2.; BETZ: Map 3.
[Ref: 10444]    £950.00 ($1,463 • €1,150 rates)

RAMUSIO, Giovanni Battista. [Upsidedown Woodblock Map of Africa]
[Course of the Nile] Venice, 1565. Woodcut, printed area 260 x 160mm. Fine condition.
Detailing the course of the Nile, orientated with south to the top. From Ramusio's "Raccolta di Navigationi et Viaggi'.
[Ref: 10382]    £340.00 ($524 • €411 rates)

DUCHETTI, Claudio. [An extremely rare Lafreri-type map of Africa]
Il disegno della Geographia moderna de tutta la parte' dell Africa i confini della quale stanno in questo modo. da ponente il mar oceano Computante l'isole. di capo Verde et le canarie da Tramontana il stretto de Gibelterra & il mare meditterraneo, da Siroco una linea che principia a feramida insino al Sues & Sues per il mare Rosso da levante il mare oceano includendo l'Isola di S.to lorenzo insino al capo di Bona Speranza dall 'Ostro ile mare oceano, Graduata in longhezza & in largheszz. Claudio ducheto exc. Lanno 1579. Henricus honius Harlemensis sculpsit. Rome, 1579. Two sheets conjoined, total 440 x 600mm. One small patch with mss. fill, otherwise a fine example with wide margins.
An extremely rare Lafreri-type map of Africa published by Claudio Duchetti, a nephew of Antonio Lafreri who worked in Rome and Venice between 1554 and 1585, taking over part of the Lafreri business after Antonio's death. The cartography comes from the Camocio/Forlani map of 1563, but it eschews the illustrations of sea monsters and galleons, limiting the decoration to a large strap-work title cartouche in the South Atlantic, a compass rose in the Indian Ocean and a small depiction of the palace of Prester John located just north of the Equator. However the quality of the engraving, by Henricus Honius of Haarlem, is apparent throughout the map, enhanced by the dark impression of this example. A second state was published by Pietro de Nobili, probably after Duchetti's death in 1585. NORWICH: 13; BETZ: 19, "Only one example of each state was located by the author", although he could not check every composite atlas known. Both books illustrate the second state only, the example in the Johannesburg Public Library. UPDATE: Richard Betz's on-line Addenda now describes our example as "the first recorded example that is not in a public library; the other example is at the Birmingham City Library". See http://www.betzmaps.com/CORRIGENDA%20&%20ADDENDA.pdf
[Ref: 11263]   P.O.A.

BÜNTING, Heinrich. [Africa]
Affrica Tretj Dje Ofressetu Zemsteho. Daniel Adam Z Weleslavina, Prague, c.1592, Czech edition. Woodcut, printed area 255 x 340mm. Some small cracks in the paper, bottom centerfold restored, right margin with some restorations.Good inmpression.
An attractive woodcut of Africa from the rare Czech edition of the "Itinerarum Sacræ Scripturæ", the mythical kingdom of Prester John is marked as is the source of the Nile which was pure conjecture at this time. Also marked is the land of the "elephant-eaters" (Elephantophagi) Norwich Map 17; Betz 26
[Ref: 7512]    £750.00 ($1,155 • €908 rates)

HONDIUS, Jodocus. [Early 17th Century map of Africa in very fine original colour.]
Nova Africæ Tabula. Auctore Jodoco Hondio. Amsterdam, Jodocus Hondius Jnr, 1613, French text edition. Original colour. 375 x 505mm. Some verdigris cracking reinforced on verso, two marginal tears repaired.
An early example of this decorative map of Africa, engraved by Hondius and first published in his edition of Mercator's Atlas in 1606. The map still resembles the older Ortelius/Mercator style, with a large strapwork title cartouche and hatched seas with numerous galleons. BETZ: Africa 52.
[Ref: 11104]    £1,750.00 ($2,695 • €2,118 rates)

DU VAL, Pierre. [Africa]
Afrique. Paris, 1682. Original colour. 105 x 130mm.
An attractive miniature map of Africa, published in Du Val's 'Géographie Universelle'.
[Ref: 10810]    £160.00 ($246 • €194 rates)

DU VAL, Pierre. [The Congo]
Congo. Paris, 1682, original outline colour, 105 x 130mm.
A miniature map of The Congo marking its topography, tribal lands, rivers and settlements. From Du Val's miniature atlas 'La Géographie Universelle'.
[Ref: 10829]    £100.00 ($154 • €121 rates)

DU VAL, Pierre. [Nubia]
Nubie. Paris, 1682, original outline colour, 105 x 130mm.
A miniature map of Nubia (now composed of parts of Egypt and Sudan) marking its topography, tribal lands, rivers and settlements. From Du Val's miniature atlas 'La Géographie Universelle'.
[Ref: 10830]    £80.00 ($123 • €97 rates)