Giovanni Battista Nicolosi

Rome 1660

From the First Edition - The Rare First State of this 4 Sheet Map : AFRICA | IOANNE BAPTISTA NICOLOSIO S.T. D . | Sic Describente

Original copperplate printed map: 
4 map sheets ; 79 x 92 cm (when the 4 sheets are joined).
Map #AFS-116             
$3,000

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Giovanni Battista Nicolosi (1610-1670) was a priest and cartographer for the Vatican's Propaganda Fide in Rome. At the request of the Propaganda Fide in 1652, Nicolosi produced an atlas, Dell' Hercole... in 1660 which contained a map of the world and four-sheet maps of the four continents.  Like the Italian maps of Africa from the previous century by Ramusio and Bertelli, this map has Southern Africa aligned at the top.  The main source for this map appears to be Nicolas Sanson's map of Africa of 1650. However, Nicolosi's map of Africa is generally conservative, particularly in the first state, in how it presents geographic information. Nicolosi does show a lake in Abyssinia which may be a pre-cursor to Lake Tana, the source for the Blue Nile River, likely from the Portuguese travel accounts. What is unusual is that Nicolosi does not generally fill the map with placenames and geographic features based on other various travel accounts on Africa and from the prevailing information of his time. This information surely was readily available to him, yet he chose to not include it on his map. However more details and placenames are added to the second state of this map.

This is the first state of the map.

Betz, Map #94.  Norwich, Map #45 (second state).

Fine condition.