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[Africa]. GASTALDI, Giacomo (1500-1566) & FORLANI, Paolo (fl. 1560-1571).
La Descrittione dell'Africa.
Engraved Map.
Venice: Paolo Forlani, 1562.
19 x 25 1/4 inches sheet, 30 1/4 x 37 inches framed.
The Most Important map of Africa published during the Renaissance. In 1546, the Venetian Council of Ten issued an order that a map of Africa be prepared for the "Sala del Scude" of the Palazzo Ducale (Doge's Palace). This task was entrusted to the foremost Italian cartographer of the sixteenth century, Giacomo Gastaldi. More than two-hundred years later, in the 1760s, Gastaldi's map of Africa, along with another of China that he executed several years later, was painted over and the original lost to posterity. It was preserved, however, in the form of this splendid map of Africa, finely engraved and published by Paolo Forlani in 1562. Forlani was perhaps the most prolific producer of maps in the mid-sixteenth century, and largely responsible for diffusing advanced geographical information to other parts of Europe. He was much-sought after as an engraver and mapmaker, particularly as he was adept at the difficult art of engraving lettering. Consequently, he was employed by four of the leading publishers of the period to prepare maps for them -- Giovanni Francesco Camocio, Ferrando Bertelli, and Bolognini Zaltieri from Venice, as well as Claudio Duchetti from Rome. This map is a prime example of Forlani's finest work, characterized by crisp engraving, close attention to detail, and an elegant, linear aesthetic. Africa had long held the European popular imagination and, like the New World, was the target of many voyages of discovery. From the early fifteenth century, the nautical school of Henry the Navigator had been extending Portuguese knowledge of the African coastline. Beginning in the 1460s, the goal was to round that continent's southern extremity to gain easier access to the riches of India (mainly black pepper and other spices) through a reliable sea route. In 1482, Diogo Cao discovered the Congo River, reaching as far as Cape Santa Maria, and then in 1488 Bartolomeu Diaz rounded the Cape of Good Hope, proving that access to the Indian Ocean was possible. Finally, in 1497-8, Vasco da Gama culminated a generation of Portuguese sea exploration when he continued beyond Diaz's tracks up the east coast of Africa and successfully landed at the southwestern coast of the Indian subcontinent. At the same time, Africa itself became a target for exploration -- and not just a geographical obstacle to trade with the Far East -- for the European discovery of the Americas in 1492 was followed by a great development of the slave trade. This industry, while ignominious, did have the side-effect of stimulating the production of better maps, and Gastaldi's delineation of Africa was perhaps the most accurate of its time.