Nürnberg c.1697

The First Pre-1700 map with the imprint of Johann Baptist Homann :
Accuratißima | Totius | AFRICÆ | TABULA | in Lucem producta | Per Iacobum de Sandrart | Norimbergæ.
[at bottom right]:  Joann Bapt. Homann Sculpsit.

Original copperplate printed map: 
48.5 x 57 cm.
Original color
SOLD
 

Map #AF-517
Click Here for High Resolution Image
 

 
Jacob von Sandrart (1630-1708) was most noted as a portrait painter and art dealer in Nürnberg from 1656. He is not known to have produced an atlas, but he did produce maps, notably large maps of the Rhine and Danube, and views, primarily of Central Europe.  This map is modeled after Frederick de Wit's map of Africa of c.1670 with the same geographical information, but with a completely different vignette and title cartouche.  Of special interest, Von Sandrart's map has the imprint of Johann Baptist Homann as the engraver on the bottom right corner.  It is one of two pre-1700 maps with Homann's imprint as the engraver; the other is the map of the Americas, Nova tabula Americae... . Homann went on to establish what is acknowledged to be one of the most important German map publishing firms of the eighteenth century. The Homann firm was founded in Nuremberg about 1702.

This attractive map of Africa does appear in some German composite atlases of the eighteenth century.  The verso is blank.  The map is not dated. There is some uncertainty as to the date for it. Norwich uses a date of 1700. If this date is correct, Von Sandrart would have been 70 years old when he published this map just three years before his death. That is certainly possible; however, much of von Sandrart's work is known to have been produced from 1664. The author has used a date of c.1697, based on Heinz, and to make this map more closely correspond with von Sandrart's other published work.

A variant of this map is known with the addition of two strips, pasted on to the bottom margin, that identify the locations of various religions in Africa using a color code. This variant is also not dated but may have been prepared as late as c.1702 (this is Map #AF-517).

Betz, Map #165.  Norwich, Map #61.

Fine Condition.  The image for Map #AF-517 was used in our book.