Rare Book Monthly
Stanford University Libraries presents “The Rediscovery of Africa,1400-1900:Maps & Images”
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The map (see image with this article) by G.W. Colton and Company entitled “Map of Equatorial Africa” from 1889, not only depicts slave trade routes, but also shows colonization efforts. One can clearly see the addition of the Congo Free State, which was established in 1885 by Belgian king Leopold II as his private colony to supply ivory and other valuable resources to Belgium.
Before being acquired by Stanford University, The Dr. Oscar I. Norwich Collection of African Maps was one of the world’s top private map collections, featuring over 300 antiquarian maps and documenting the evolution of the cartography of Africa since the 1400s. The collection has a unique section of maps from South Africa.
Abraham Ortelius & the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum As well as the Oscar I. Norwich Collection, the exhibition will showcase a copy of the famous Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Theatre of the World) an atlas by the Flemish cartographer Abraham Ortelius (1527-1598). The “Theatrum” is considered the first modern atlas and is referred to by many as the summary of sixteenth-century cartography, according to the Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress. Many of the sources he used to create his maps are either extremely hard to find or no longer exist. However, the single most important source that he used was Gerardus Mercator’s (1512-1594) world map of 1569.
The “Theatrum” was originally published in Latin in 1570 and contained fifty-three pages on which were printed seventy maps along with the accompanying text. Ortelius is credited with changing the face of map-making by emphasizing explanatory texts that accompanied the actual maps.
John Ogilby’s Africa
The exhibition will contain a copy of John Ogilby’s book, Africa, which was first published in 1670 and was part of a multi-volume project in which Ogilby intended to describe the world through words as well as maps.
