L'Africque - Sanson - 1717
Item Y08 - 120 x 92 cms - Price R7,690
This is the earliest of our African wall maps and, at first, one is surprised by
the accuracy of the overall outline of the continent and the incredible number
of placenames on that coastline.
The accuracy of Africa's coastline is due to the fact that, prior to the advent of adequate navigational instruments
and timepieces, the surest form of navigation was to keep land in sight.
As more and more ships traversed the coast, so more knowledge of the coastline was
gained and this knowledge was passed back to the cartographers of the time.
However, the same reliance on 'certain' knowledge does not apply to the detail
shown of Africa's interior. Looking North of the Equator, one could be impressed
by Sanson's decisions to leave large areas of land blank (other than to
embellish them with an occasional decorative mountain range) It is once the eye
travels South that rumour and speculation take over from fact. Little was known
of the interior of Southern Africa and it was 'decided' that this was mainly due
to the inaccessibility of the interior. Maps therefore needed to show formidable
mountain ranges encircling the entire southern part of the continent.
A recurring theme of African exploration was the rumoured presence of vast inland
lakes or seas. Some reports of these bodies of water hinted at lakes so large
that cartographers shied away from portraying them as a simple lake and took the
liberty of adding an island or two in the center of the lake to provide some
'balance' to the theme.
Sanson 'limited' himself to one large island to give a sense of
balance to 'Lake Zaire / Lake Zembre"
