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This Lafreri map depicts the island of Madagascar, referred to as St. Lawrence ("S. Lorenzo"), with a rich array of topographical features, settlements, and decorative elements typical of the 16th-century cartographic style. The island is shown with various named locations, such as "C. de S. antna," "Tera. de gada," "P. de S. ciago," "Arcmopota," "S. andrea," and "Lago cerado." The map includes ships and sea monsters in the surrounding waters, adding a decorative and illustrative touch. There is an empty cartouche in the upper left corner, likely intended for a title or additional information.
The map can be confidently attributed to Antonio Lafreri, for reasons laid out in Bifolco & Ronca (2018, Tav. 108) and earlier authors. The map probably forms part of a series of anonymous island maps dated to around 1570 (see this map of Sri Lanka for another entry in the series). Following Lafreri's death, the plate (along with many others) was inherited by Claudio Duchetti before it passed Giovanni Orlandi and probably Hendrick Van Schoel in the 17th century. According to Bifolco & Ronca, no later printings are known, though they may be possible.
The cartography of all of the maps in this series is more decorative and notional than strictly accurate. This bears further exploration, as there were ample far more precise templates for this island at the time of publication, see for instance, Gastaldi's 1567 map of the island (Bifolco & Ronca 107).
Antonio Lafreri (1512-1577) (also known as Antoine Lafréry and Antoine du Pérac Lafréry) was a French mapmaker, engraver, and publisher who worked in Italy. Lafreri was born in Franche-Comté and moved to Rome around 1540. Lafreri sold sheet maps but he also bound maps into books for his clients based on their interests and needs. These are the famous Lafreri atlases, important pre-cursors to the modern atlas. He also published well known works such as the Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae (ca. 1575), a collection of engraved views and images of Rome. Lafreri was well-connected to the cartographic networks of the time, collaborating with Giacomo Gastaldi, Battista Agnese, Antonio Salamanca, Donato Bertelli, Paolo Forlani, and others.
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