Africa - .; Mercator - Africa. Ex magna orbis terre descriptione Gerardi Mercatoris desumpta, Studio & industria G. M. - 1601-1620

Technical data

Title: Africa. From the great description of the world by Gerardo Mercatoris drawn from the description, Studio & industry of G. M. Junior.
Author: Gerard Mercator the Younger, from Gerardus Mercator (1512–1594).
Designer: Gerard Mercator the Younger
Publisher: Hondius publishing house, within the editions of the Mercator–Hondius atlas.
Place: Amsterdam.
Period: first quarter of the 17th century, about 1609–1619; map first published in 1595.
Technique: copper-engraved intaglio on copper with manually colored subdivisions of territorial areas and ornamental elements, of a date not established.
Support: laid paper.
Dimensions: sheet 46 × 55 cm; engraving 38.5 × 47.5 cm.
Composition: single-page plate, folded centrally, taken from the Atlas sive Cosmographicae meditationes de fabrica mundi et fabricati figura, in an edition with French text on the reverse.
Regions represented: the entire African continent, from the Maghreb to the Cape of Good Hope, including Egypt, the Sahara, West Africa and the Gulf of Guinea, the Congo basin, Nubia, Abyssinia, the Horn of Africa, East and Southern Africa; Madagascar and the main surrounding archipelagos, including the Canary Islands, Cape Verde and the Comoros. Also included are portions of the Mediterranean Europe, the Near East, and the Arabian Peninsula, with small scraps of Brazil and the hypothetical southern continent.

Description

Map of Africa by Gerard Mercator the Younger based on the grand representation of the world published by his grandfather in 1569. The continent is depicted in its entirety, with a dense network of place-names, kingdoms and historical territories, river courses, lakes and mountain ranges shown in small reliefs. The depiction combines relatively detailed knowledge of the coasts with an interior geography still largely based on ancient tradition and indirect reports. Particularly significant is the Nile sources system, linked to large lacustrine basins and the legendary Mountains of the Moon. In the Abyssinian area appears the small figure of a sovereign on a throne, tied to the tradition of Prester John.
At the bottom left a large cartouche of Mannerist taste unfolds, formed by volutes, ribbons, vegetal festoons and two satyr figures, within which the Latin title is inserted. At the base is the scale in German miles. The oceans are animated by a dense wavy hatch and elegant calligraphic inscriptions; the geographical graticule, the Equator and the Tropics complete the scientific apparatus of the plate. The coloring distinguishes the different territorial areas and enhances the rich decoration.

Historical-artistic note

The plate belongs to the editorial tradition of Mercator’s atlas and documents the contribution of the nephew of the same name to the continuation of the family cartographic enterprise. Appearing in 1595, it was subsequently reissued in the editions curated by the Hondius house in Amsterdam. The French text on the reverse allows the exemplar to be assigned to early 17th-century editions, without determining a single printing year. The work constitutes a significant testimony of African cartography between the Renaissance and the Baroque, in which geographic observations, classical sources and legendary traditions coexist within an engraving setting of notable decorative quality.

Condition Report

Copy with a sharp impression and well-preserved coloring. Vertical central editorial fold, with slight yellowing and signs of wear along the fold line. Paper with gentle waviness, widespread and light browning, small foxing spots and some haloing, more evident at the margins and on the verso. Brief restorations of small tears and marginal irregularities, including a tear in the upper margin near the central fold and a tear along the side margin, visible on the reverse. Margins preserved beyond the plate edge. Verso with French typographic text titled “L’AFRIQUE,” pages 41–42, and a figurative initial.