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Description

Very rare first state of Nicholas De Fer's folio-format engraved map of Africa, published in 1700.

The cartography of the map is based on De Fer's wall map of 1696 and was echoed in his small-format map of 1700. The map was engraved by Hendrik van Loon

Betz 171.1 notes:

This is De Fer's folio map of Africa. It bears a close resemblance to De Fer's other map of 1700 (See Map # 170). The notable differences are the larger size of this map at 46.5 x 60 cm and the imprint within the grid line at the bottom right of the engraver Hendrik van Loon (H. van Loon sculp.) on this map (the other De Fer map of 1700 does not have an imprint for the engraver). Van Loon was a skilled engraver who had previously been employed by De Fer to engrave his set of wall maps of the world and continents.

The geography on this map is similar to De Fer's other map of 1700. The common model for both maps is De Fer's wall map of Africa of 1696/98. See Map # 163 for a discussion of the geography.

Publication Information

This map was prepared for De Fer's folio atlas, Atlas ou Recueil de cartes geographiques. Like the publishing history of De Fer's L'Atlas Curieux, the history of this atlas is also complicated. It is known that De Fer issued this folio-sized atlas in 1709, with a further edition in 1728.

Until recently, this map was only known with dates of 1705 and 1722. Wulf Bodenstein brought this map in its first state of 1700 to the attention of the author.

This map was issued in its second state in 1705. Upon De Fer's death in 1720, the copperplate for this map was acquired by his son-in-law, Guillaume Danet, who inherited De Fer's business. Danet changed the date and publishers imprint on the map to 'A Paris le Sr Danet... 1722 and issued another edition of the atlas in 1728.

Rarity

As noted in the Betz commentary above, this first state of the map was unknown to them until shortly before the publication of their cartobibliography. Indeed, the map is rare enough that we have not had it in any state. Betz notes one copy of the first state in a private Belgian collection.

Condition Description
Top left and right side reinforced by thicker paper. Reinforcement on all four corners edges. Some hand-coloring showing through on the verso. Repaired tear off the coast of Arabia in the Indian Ocean with matching repaired tear off of the Canary Islands. Good to VG.
Reference
Betz 171.1; Norwich 1997, 64 (second state); Pastoureau 1984: 170-184; Tooley 1969: 45.
Nicolas de Fer Biography

Nicholas de Fer (1646-1720) was the son of a map seller, Antoine de Fer, and grew to be one of the most well-known mapmakers in France in the seventeenth century. He was apprenticed at twelve years old to Louis Spirinx, an engraver. When his father died in 1673, Nicholas helped his mother run the business until 1687, when he became the sole proprietor.

His earliest known work is a map of the Canal of Languedoc in 1669, while some of his earliest engravings are in the revised edition of Methode pour Apprendre Facilement la Geographie (1685). In 1697, he published his first world atlas. Perhaps his most famous map is his wall map of America, published in 1698, with its celebrated beaver scene (engraved by Hendrick van Loon, designed by Nicolas Guerard). After his death in 1720, the business passed to his sons-in-law, Guillaume Danet and Jacques-Francois Benard.