The digital gallery

GEOG 3672 Discussion questions

This is a page from the Catalan Atlas of 1375 by Cresques Abraham. He was a Jewish manuscript artist and mapmaker, commissioned by Prince John of Aragon to create a set of nautical charts that would cover lands beyond the typical medieval Mediterranean portolan charts (navigational maps for ships).

This page shows part of northern Africa, and features prominently the king of Mali, Musa Keita I, holding a gold coin, a reference to his distribution of gold to the poor along the route of the Hajj, his pilgrimage journey to Mecca. Timbuktu is indicated to his left, by a building with the label "Tenbuch".

Image from Bibliotheque Nationale de France

Bird's eye view of Algiers, from Georg Braun and Frans Hogenberg's comprehensive atlas of cities of the world (Civitates Orbis Terrarum), 1588.

Translation of title: View of Algiers, the most powerful town of the Saracens, built in the Numidian province of Africa. Situated on the edge of the Balearic Current in the Mediterranean Sea, across from Spain. Under Ottoman rule. (from Sanderus Maps and Books).

Braun and Hogenberg's giant atlas was published in 6 volumes and includes town plans, city views and profiles of cities in Europe, Africa, Asia and America (Mexico City, Cuzco). In total, it contains 543 different representations of 475 cities. It was one of the best-selling works in the last quarter of the 16th century.

A New and Correct Map of the Coast of Africa : from Cape Blanco Lat. 2040' N. to the Coast of Angola Lt. 11S. : With Explanatory Notes of all the Forts and Settlements belonging to the several European Powers. R. W. Seale Sculp. (to accompany) The Universal Dictionary Of Trade and Commerce ... By Malachy Postlethwayt, 1774. From The David Rumsey Map Collection.

Faden, William and Jefferys, Thomas

Africa. Engraved by Faden and Jefferys, Geographer to the King. London: publish'd according to Act of Parliament, 29th May, 1775 by Faden & Jefferys, Corner of St. Martin's Lane, Charing Cross. From The David Rumsey Map Collection.

François Levaillant (1753 – 1824) was a French author, explorer, and naturalist.

Levaillant was instrumental in creating a large, painted cotton map of South Africa for the French monarch, King Louis XVI, measuring 3m by 2m in size.

Recognized as the first modern ornithologist and taxidermist, Levaillant produced watercolors and maps, and captured his adventures in a number of volumes on his return to France. In these, he painted a picture of the peoples, flora and fauna of South Africa at the time.

(image from Wikipedia; information from Wikipedia and "A Map Fit for a King")

A map shewing the progress of, discovery & improvement, in the geography of North Africa, 1798, by James Rennell. From the Library of Congress Map Collection.

Africa. By J. Arrowsmith. London: Edward Stanford, 55 Charing Cross, S.W. Octr., 1st. 1878. (to accompany) Stanford's London Atlas Of Universal Geography. From The David Rumsey Map Collection.

Sketch Map of South Africa Showing British Possessions, From the Scottish Geographical Magazine, 1885. Published by the Scottish Geographical Society and edited by Hugh A. Webster and Arthur Silva White. Volume I. From University of Texas at Austin Perry Castaneda Library Map Collection.

A Map of the Route of the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition, 1890. Detailed map of the Central portion of Africa, showing the route taken in Henry Stanley's mission to rescue the Emin Pasha expedition along the Congo River and across the Congo Free State between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

Description taken From Raremaps.com -The Emin Pasha Relief Expedition of 1886 to 1889, was one of the last major European expeditions into the interior of Africa in the nineteenth century, ostensibly to the relief of Emin Pasha, General Charles Gordon's besieged governor of Equatoria, threatened by Mahdist forces. The expedition was led by Henry Morton Stanley and came to be both celebrated for its ambition in crossing "darkest Africa", and notorious for the deaths of so many of its members and the disease unwittingly left in its wake.

Image from Wikimedia Commons.

Africa Religions & Missions. In A Literary and Historical Atlas of Africa and Australasia. by J. G. Bartholomew, LL.D. London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd; New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. Inc. 1913. From Michigan State University scanned maps.

East Africa. Land of Sunshine, 1949, by D.O. Matthews and The East Africa Tourist Travel Association. From The David Rumsey Map Collection.

Energy map of Africa / cartographically produced by R. Smith ; compiled by M.L. Martin, 1996, published by the Geological Survey (South Africa). Council for Geosciences. From The American Geographical Society Library Digital Map Collection.

Africa, ethnolinguistic groups, 1996, United States. Central Intelligence Agency. From the Library of Congress Map Collection.

This is an allegorical image of the continent of Africa, from the 9th volume of Johannes Blaeu's Atlas Maior. The atlas was the preeminent map publication of the 17th century and most comprehensive world atlas produced up to that time, containing more than 530 maps accompanied by extensive textual descriptions. Decorative plates such as this introduced each volume only in certain special editions.

You can explore all pages of Blaeu's entire digitized Atlas here.

Image from Sotheby's

Map of the African continent from Blaeu's Atlas Maior (originally produced by Willem Blaeu, father of Johannes), 1663 edition.

"The map shows major African cities across the top border. These include Tangiers, Ceuta, Algiers, Tunis, Alexandria, Cairo, the island of Mozambique, the mine at St. George in Guinea, and the Canary Islands...They offer a hint of the rich port economies that ringed the continent in the seventeenth century."

"Blaeu added many place names from the Portuguese discoveries and those of the Dutch as they came to dominate the East Indies trade. Blaeu used his favored status as hydrographer to the Dutch East India Company and his central location in Amsterdam to access the latest published and manuscript sources."

--from Barry Ruderman Antique Maps.