Striking decorative map of Africa south of the eastern Horn and the Gulf of Guinea. Excellent detail is displayed throughout the map, with the interior of the continent at times accurately shown and at times labeled "little known." The uncertain nature of the mapping did not stop De L'Isle from inferring certain the position of certain lakes from hearsay, including the Great Lakes in the Great Rift Valley.
An attractive decorative cartouche shows a sailing ship passing by a sea monster spouting water. Numerous notes adorn the map. Robin Island is named.
This map originally appeared in De Fer's Atlas Curieux.
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.