Carta Geografica Del Capo Di Buona
Speranza - Salmon - 1700's
Item Y10a - 67 x 51 cms - Price R3,850
One of the largest historical / geographical efforts of the 1700's must surely be
that produced by Salmon over a period of 35
years. The work, entitled "The Present State of the World, Natural, Political,
Moral" comprised 26 large volumes. In addition to bringing together a vast array
of cartographic information, Salmon also documented and commented upon the ways
and customs of the peoples of the world.
The depth and breadth of the
information compiled by Salmon was so great that, in order to proceed with
publication of his work, he ran the risk of flouting several of the dictates
laid down at that time by the Catholic Church. Historical evidence tells us that
Salmon had to seek permission to ignore a Vatican imprimatur of 12th June 1766 -
however, the contents of the directive contained in that imprimatur are not
readily available.
No positive data on Salmon's date of birth or of his
immediate family exists and it is extremely likely that Salmon, given the far
reaching arms of the Inquisizione throughout Europe in those times,
intentionally did not leave too many traces of his identity for interested
parties to follow. Given the scope of work which could be contained within 26
volumes and given that the subject matter touched not only upon things natural
but also items of a political and moral nature, it is certain that this work
would have included many items which were dangerous to debate in those
times.
Throughout the entire work Salmon refers to himself as M. Salmon, the
'M' signifying Messer (more commonly Sig. In modern times). He was therefore
'Mr. Salmon' and, in addition to protecting his own identity, he also neglected
to mention the name(s) of the person(s) responible for the engraving of the
plates. We know, from the quality of the final result, that the engraver was a
truly professional artist, gifted with the talents required to produce such a
volume of work at such a high level of workmanship. His true name, along with
Salmon's, remains a mystery.
This map, which is one page of the two volumes
dedicated to the African continent, does not limit itself to being a 'simple
account' of the Cape coastline, it also draws the reader's attention to such
details as 'The port of Saldanha is more comfortable than that of the Table, but
is lacking in sweet water" Many features of the Cape Winelands are readily
identified - Franschoek (Quartier Francese) and Constantia (Costanza) are
probably the easiest to locate. Further examination of the map will disclose
many places as familiar to the African tourist as they are to residents of the
Cape and we hope that it will bring you many hours of pleasure
