158. Forlani, Paolo – Camocio, Francesco: AFRICA a Veteribus...

... anteq(ue) pars illa, quam hodie Mu(n)du(m) novu(m) appellamus, ab Hispanis detecta fuit, tertia pars orbis habebatur, que freto Herculeo, ac Nilo a cæteris partibus diducitur, Libya et Hesperia the Grecis appellata...
Venice, 1566.
Scarce, delicate, copperplate map of Africa by Paolo Forlani, the outstanding artist of the Lafreri School. The basis of the depiction was the work of Giacomo Gastaldi. However, since his wall map of Africa was not published until 1564, likely the source of the map was a mural on the wall at the Doge’s Palace painted by the cartographer in 1549 at the request of the Council of Ten (Consiglio dei Dieci). The large, joined two-sheet map was published by Giovanni Francesco Camocio as a separate print. The item is the second modern copperplate map of Africa, preceded only by Forlani’s 1562 work (also edited by Camocio). Only 3 copies of the first (1563) edition are known in reference books, but our lot – the second state of the sheet – is among the greatest rarities with 6 pieces in public collections. The topography and nomenclature of the map field are detailed, showing the region from the Mediterranean Sea to the Cape of Good Hope in a north to south direction, and from west to east, we reach from the Canary Islands through the Arabian Peninsula to India. In several cases, Forlani made maps of the same region in consecutive years. Although in the case of our item, he did not modify the continent’s coastline and kept to the decorations of the cartouche, it still contains several striking changes. The title field’s dedication to Tomasso Ravenna disappeared; instead, Nicolaas De Stoop – whose name can be found on his several charts – addresses the reader (“Nicolaus Stopius to the fair and wise reader...”), then, after presenting the territory of Africa, he describes that he extended the field of the map as far as India. The western coasts of the Indian Peninsula and the Maldives Islands appear, and in addition to the wind rose also featured in the previous version, additional illustrations – galleys, sea monsters, and Noah’s ark floating in the Indian Ocean with the dove bringing the olive branch – enrich the depiction.
Dimensions:  440 x 640 (485 x 715) mm.
Fine, clear copy. With existing export licence.
Bifolco – Ronca: Tav. 92 (2. állapot).; Imago Mundi III (Tooley – Maps in Italian Atlases): 74.; Betz, Richard L. – The Mapping of Africa: 8.2.
 
Starting price: 11,000,000 HUF