Afrique - Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville 1749
Item Y06 - 97 x 97 cms - Price R7,690
Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville (1697-1782) was, without a doubt, one of the
greatest cartographers of the 18th Century. He was known for his meticulousness
in his work and this set him apart from his European contemporaries. He wanted
to create cartographic maps based on astronomic observations and show only those
phenomena that existed, thus leaving many empty spaces.
He firmly believed that
one could not fill a map with fictitious or superfluous material in order to
compensate the lack of geographical knowledge available in the year 1700. He was
born in Paris and he dedicated his life to geographic studies. He became a
geographer and cartographer at the young age of twenty and then in 1773 he
became a member of the Academy of Sciences.
This map shows some of the empty spaces that were mentioned above. d'Anville
limits himself to photographing, as it were, only the known areas; those that
were unknown belonged to the continent of Africa. It is a work of great
precision and the engraving is quite refined. Note also an exceptional attention
to detail. The images below illustrate the accuracy of d'Anville's
representation of some of the coastal features when compared with the more
picturesque approach of Sanson.
d'Anville's Coastline
Sanson's Coastline
'Congo' from d'Anville
If one compares D'Anville's coastline with that of Sanson two main differences
emerge. The first is that D'Anville shows a much smoother coastline than Sanson
who preferred to make large indentations into the coastline at each report of a
'bay' or 'cape'. Secondly, where Sanson has a proliferation of placenames on the
entire Southern coastline, D'Anville settles for a cape or bay every 100
kilometres or so. The two maps are also strikingly different in their
representation of the 'Congo'. Sanson consigns one of his few blank areas to
'Estats de Congo' north of the equator. D'Anville's 'Royaume de Congo' is placed
much further South (extending between 5° and 15° South of the Equator.
