Ortelius' Northwest Africa:   Barbariae Et Biledvlgerid, Nova Descriptio

Original copperplate printed map
Fine Handcolor
327 x 499 mm
Map # AF-492
$ Sold

The map covers the area on the north-west coast of Africa from about present day Senegal and "Fume del Oro" (River of Gold) across north Africa to about present day Libya and the interior of Africa, "Biledvlgerid".  Parts of Italy, Spain & the Straits of Gibraltar, and Portugal with their major cities are also shown.  As with many maps by Ortelius, a ship and several finely drawn sea monsters are shown in the Mediterranean and Atlantic.

This map was included in Ortelius' Theatrum Orbis Terrarum from its first edition of 1570.  Ortelius' Theatrum Orbis Terrarum  was the first atlas that produced a uniform series of maps of the world.  The publication of the Theatrum.Orbis Terrarum  can be considered the starting point for over 100 years of Dutch supremacy in the production of beautiful maps and atlases. 

Latin text on the verso of this map with a page number of page '114', indicating a date for this map of 1595, 1601, or 1609 (van den Broecke).  According to van den Broecke, the source for this map is an anonymous publisher in Venice about 1560 who, in turn, based his map on Gastaldi's famous map of Africa.

Reference:  van den Broecke, Map #176.  Krogt, Peter van der. Koeman's Atlantes Neerlandici, vol. 3 (Ortelius). 't Goy-Houten: HES Publishers, 2003.

Fine Condition.