| Jean Baptiste Nolin - Vincenzo Coronelli | |
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Paris 1689
The First State of an Important Transitional Map of Africa -
usually found as a separate map : |
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This map is not regularly found in atlases, but is usually found as a separate map. This is an important transitional map of Africa. This map almost completely omits the two Ptolemaic lakes in Central Africa, except for the lower portion of the western Lake Zaire. Within this central area of Africa, there is a large text oval describing the sources for the interior of Africa. This text was purposely placed here to demonstrate that the two lakes were likely based on tradition and not on fact. The text describes the Nile River as known to the ancients and mentions the Jesuit explorations in Abyssinia of Pedro Paez, Manuel de Almeida, and others. It culminates by describing Hiob Ludolf's Historia Aethiopia of 1681, with his important map of Abyssinia which helped to disprove Ptolemy's belief that the Nile begins in the Mountains of the Moon. The text box is signed at the bottom with Coronelli's name (Le P[ère] Coronelli). The map does show the Abawi le Nil, Nilus fl. (Abay River or the Blue Nile) with its source in Tzana Lac (Lake Tana) in the Abyssinian highlands. It completely excludes the White Nile River with its true source further to the south in East Africa. Evidently, Coronelli believed that the Nile River had its primary source in the Abyssinian highlands as he labeled Tana as the source for the Nile on the map. In West Africa, the Niger River still retains its east-to-west orientation, arising in Lac Niger in Central Africa and emptying into the Atlantic Ocean. This was a relatively consistent representation on maps since Leo Africanus' book, first published by Ramusio in 1550, described the Niger River. Above the Niger, the Nubia River continues its west-to-east flow into the Nile River by Egypt. Besides attempting to correct the river systems of Africa, this map represents a tremendous step forward in its use of additional placenames reflecting up-to-date knowledge of European explorations and permanent settlements. This can be seen along the African coasts, as well as in the interior in West Africa, in Abyssinia, up the Rio Zambeze (the Zambezi River showing the town of Tete), and along the South African coast with the addition of Bay Haut (Hout Bay), etc. Some of the older representation of the interior remains however, such as Castel Portugal in the interior of Southern Africa. This map was elegantly engraved by Hendrik van Loon (Van Loon's name as the engraver, 'H. van Loon Sculp.', is at the bottom right of the map between the gridline and the neatline). Van Loon was employed by various publishers in late seventeenth century Paris, including Nolin and De Fer, to engrave a variety of maps. To the left of the scale bar there is a map key identifying various types of places on the map.
Jean Baptiste
Nolin (1657-1708) was known as a Parisian engraver and
publisher. Nolin is probably best known for publishing the maps
and globes of the noted Venetian Vincenzo Coronelli. From 1681
to 1683, Coronelli had worked in Paris to produce an enormous
pair of terrestrial and celestial globes for King Louis XIV. It
is not clear if Nolin had established a relationship with
Coronelli, who was only seven years his senior, during this
time. In any event, he began to publish a series of
separately-issued maps of various areas of the world including
this map of Africa which used much of the geographic information
provided by Coronelli's detailed globe gores. It is possible
that Nolin simply copied Coronelli's work without permission as
he was later charged with copying the maps of Delisle in 1706
without permission. However, it appears that Nolin had
Coronelli's approval to publish his maps including this one of
Africa. Helen Wallis (1982: 32-33) states that Coronelli had
secured a 15-year privilege from King Louis XIV for the
publication of his maps and had granted Nolin exclusive rights.
Both maps in Fine Condition. |
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