Scarce map of Africa by Francois De Belleforest, which appeared in the 1575 French edition of Munster's C osmographia. The map is perhaps the earliest maps of the African continent printed in France.
De Belleforest's scarce map is drawn from the first edition of Ortelius' Typus Orbis Terrarum. The primary difference is that while the Ortelius map is a copperplate engraving, Belleforest continues the tradition of woodcut maps, copperplate maps not having yet gained currency in France.
This map of Africa is based upon Gastaldi's 8 sheet wall map and Mercator's world map of 1569.
Ortelius' map was the first widely disseminated modernized map of Africa in the latter part of the 16th Century and became the standard map of the continent until well into the 17th Century