| Laurent Fries | |
| Vienne,
(1522) 1541
Africa south of the Equator: Tabula noua partis Africæ (new part of Africa) Original woodblock printed
map |
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This map is directly modeled after the Waldseemüller's modern map of southern Africa, with the addition of decorative elements and text legends. The Fries map of southern Africa is the second printed map after the Waldseemüller map to solely depict southern Africa. Southern Africa continues with extensive placename information along the coast, with slightly less information on the east African coast, since the Portuguese had only been in this region since the Vasco da Gama voyage some twenty years before this map was made. The interior identifies African kingdoms and the figures of seated African kings, along with an elephant and several snakes. Also, at the bottom right of the southern Africa map, the figure of the King of Portugal is shown holding a scepter in his left hand and the banner of Portugal in his right while he rides a sea monster in the Mare Prassodum, signifying the presence of the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean. The island of Madagascar is placed at the extreme southern corner of the map. Fries supplements the Waldseemuller information with a variety of decorative elements that were not on Waldseemüller's Africa maps; these elements may have been modeled after Waldseemüller's Carta Marina of 1516, especially with the figure of the King of Portugal in the Indian Ocean. This map, along with one of northern Africa, was included in editions of Claudius Ptolemy's Geographia in 1522, 1525, 1535, and 1541. The following are the characteristics of the different editions of the Fries map (this is mostly based on Tooley and on Karrow): This particular map appears to be from an edition of 1541. 1522. Published by Joannes or Johannes Gruninger in Strasbourg. Title: woodcut lettering above map in scroll (banderole) "Il Tabula moderna Aphrice". Verso: Decorated with two ornate architectural columns with kings on a balcony and kneeling angels holding lighted candles, and a large central woodblock of an African hoeing. 1525. Published by Gruninger in conjunction with Johannis Koberger Title: no title above map Verso: "Tab. Mo. Primae partis Aphricae". Broad left hand column with the initial "G" between dividers at the base of the column, a narrow pillar on the right and two cherubs with a bowl of fruit at foot. 1535. Published in Lyon by Melchior and Gaspar Treschel. Title: letterpress lettering above map "Tabv. Nova Partis Aphri" Verso: Blank, except for the number 38 1541. Published by Gaspar Treschel in Vienne Title: letterpress above map and not with scroll "Tabula nova partis Africae" It is possible that Waldseemüller prepared the maps for his edition of Ptolemy's Geographia at about the same time as he prepared his famous world map of 1507 as the basic source information on Africa is the same. Both the 1507 wall map and the two modern maps from the Geographia seem to have a common source in the Nicolo De Caveri Manuscript Planisphere of c.1504-05, or in a Cantino-Caveri type model. The maps are based on Portuguese sources from their recent discoveries in Africa, particularly on the southeast coast of Africa. The southern Africa map shows the source of the Nile River as being in the Mountains of the Moon (Mone Lune) without the Nile lakes. Fries supplements this information with a variety of decorative elements that were not on Waldseemüller's Africa maps; these elements may have been modeled after Waldseemüller's Carta Marina of 1516, especially with the figure of the King of Portugal in the Indian Ocean.
Betz, p. 55-56. Tooley, Map collectors'
circle, No. 30 Printed Maps of the Continent of Africa Part II,
p. 61-62. Karrow, Mapmakers of the Sixteenth Century. |
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