Cartographica Neerlandica Background for Ortelius Map No. 8

Title: AFRICAM | GRÆCI | LIBYAM APP. | AFRI:|CÆ TA:|BVLA | NOVA.| EDITA ANT:|VERPIÆ | 1570 (upper left:) "Cum Priuilegio" [The Greeks call Africa Lybia. A new map of Africa, published in Antwerp in 1570, with privilege]. (Middle right:) "SINVS BARBA:|RICVS, qui et Aspe:|rum mare Ptol:" [The Barbarian Gulf, which by Ptolemæus is also called the Rough sea.] (Just right of centre:) "Hic longe lateque imperitat | magnus princeps Presbiter | Iões totius Africæ potentiß: | Rex" [Here rules far and wide the great leader Prester John, most powerful king of all Africa"]. (Centre:) "Hic Niger flu: per 60 mill: | se sub terram condit". [Here the river Niger flows underground for sixty miles.] (Lower right:) "Hæc insula ab incolis Madagascar | ab Hispanis S. Laurentij,olim Me:|mithias Ptol.Cerne forte Plin.|dicitur" [This island is by its inhabitants called Madagascar, by the Spanish Saint Laurentius, and was in old times by Ptolemæus called Memithias, and was probably by Plinius called Cerne.] (Upper centre:) "NVBIA | Regnum olim Chri:|stiana religione im:|butum; hac tem:|pestate vix | ullam reli:|gionê | agnoscunt". [Nubia, once drenched in Christianity, nowadays hardly professes to any religion.]

Plate size: 377 x 506 mm
Scale: 1 : 23,000,000
Identification number: 8 (Koeman/Meurer: 4, Karrow: 1/9, van der Krogt AN: 8600:31).

Occurrence in Theatrum editions and page number:

1570L(A)4 (100 copies printed) (last line, centered like 6 lines above it: & Hieronymi Fracastorij ; diamond-shaped full stop after title.),
1570L(B)4 (100 copies printed) (last line, centred like 6 lines above it: Fracastorij. ; diamond-shaped full stop after title.),
1570L(C)4 (125 copies printed) (last line, centred like 6 lines above it: Fracastorij. ; circle-shaped full stop after title.),
1571L4 (275 copies printed) (last line, centred like 6 lines above it: Fracastorij),
1571D/1573D4 (350 copies printed) (last line, centred like one line above it, in cursive script: "tueren secreten,hier mede besich laten,endt gaen voort onse landen beschryuen."),
1572G4Koler (pasted over p.4 of a 1570L edition; few copies printed) (last line, names not in Gothic script: schreiben Ioann Baptistæ Rhamusij, und Hieronymi Fracastorij lesen.),
1572/1573G4 (225 copies printed) (last line, italic like the entire text, centred like two lines above it: hiemit arbaitten lassen,vnd ghen fort,vmb vnsere Lender zubeschreiben.),
1572/1674F4 (225 copies printed) (last line, centred like 4 lines above it:& passons outre aux autres Pays.),
1573L(AB)4 (75 copies printed) (Version A has full stop after title just below the horizontal stroke of last capital A in title. Version B has full stop after title just above the horizontal stroke of the last capital A in title. Both versions have as their last line, centred like 5 lines above it: nymi Fracastorij.),
1574L4 (175 copies printed) (large page number, 11 mm, similar, but not identical to 1575L; 9th text line from the top ends: Atlanticû ver ; last line, centred like 4 lines above it: Rhamusij,& Hieronymi Fracastorij.),
1575L4 (100 copies printed) (small page number, 7 mm, similar, but not identical to 1574L; 9th text line from the top ends: Atlanticum ver ; last line, centred like 4 lines above it: Rhamusij,&Hieronymi Fracastorij.),
1579L(A)4 (250 copies printed) (last line, left aligned: Baptistæ Rhamusij,& Hiernonymi Fracastorij. ; 14th line from the top ends: Advertêdum),
1579L(B)4 (250 copies printed) (last line, left aligned: Baptistæ Rhamusij,& Hiernonymi Fracastorij. ; 14th line from the top ends: Advertendum),
1580/1589G4 (350 copies printed) (last line, centred like 6 lines above it: nymi Fracastorij.),
1581F4 (400 copies printed) (last line, left aligned: re, & passons outre aux autres Pays.),
1584L4 (750 copies printed) (last line, left aligned: nis Baptistæ Rhamusi, & Hieronymi Fracastorij.),
1587F4 (250 copies printed) (last line, left aligned: sons outre aux Pays.),
1588S4 (300 copies printed) (last line, left aligned: Baptista Rhamusi,y Hieronymo Fracastorio.),
1589G4 see 1580G,
1592L4 (525 copies printed) (text and pagenumber, but not typesetting identical to 1595L; 13th line from the bottom ends: apud ; last line, left aligned: ximo,habes litteras Ioannis Baptistæ Rhamusi,& Hieronymi Fracastorij.),
1595L4 (500 copies printed) (text and page number, but not typesetting, identical to 1592L; 15th line from the bottom end: relinquimus at the right edge of the text; 13th line from the bottom ends: habes ; last line, left aligned: ximo,habes litteras Ioannis Baptistæ Rhamusi,& Hieronymi Fracastorij.),
1598/1610/1613D3 (100 copies printed) (last line, centred like 3 lines above it, Gothic script: landen beschryven.),
1598F4 (525 copies printed) (last line, full width: en faire la diligête recherche aux inquisiteurs des secrets de nature,& passons outre aux autres Pays.),
1601L4 (200 copies printed) (15th line from the bottom ends: relinquimus as the second word of the line which is further empty; 13th line from the bottom ends: habes; last line, left aligned: ximo,habes litteras Ioannis Baptistæ Rhamusi,& Hieronymi Fracastorij.),
1602G4 (250 copies printed) (last line, centred like 5 lines above it: Hieronymi Fracastorij.),
1602S4 (250 copies printed) (last line, left aligned: Hieronymo Fracastorio.),
1603L4 300 copies printed) (text and page number, but not typesetting, is identical to 1609/1612S/L; last line, left aligned: teras Ioannis Baptistæ Rhamusi,& Hieronymi Fracastorij.),
1606E4 (300 copies printed) (last line, left aligned: "Ierom Fracastorius. Of" Africa "likewise you may reade at large in the second volume of" M. Richard Hakluyts "English voyage."),
1608/1612I5 (300 copies printed) (last line, left aligned: con l'innondatione del Nilo , & del monte Sinai,doue caualcò in persona.),
1609/1612/1641S4 (325 copies printed) (last line, left aligned: tierra,tienes las cartas de Ioan Baptista Rhamusi, y Hieronymo Fracastorio.),
1609/1612L4 (300 copies printed) (text and page number, but not typesetting, is identical to 1603L; last line, left aligned: litteras Ioannis Baptistæ Rhamusi,& Hieronymi Fracastorij.),

Approximate total number of copies printed: 8175.

States: (as described): 8.1. Note that the grade numbers of 20 and 30 degrees South have no line below them. Biledulgerid is missing above and below the Tropic of Cancer.
8.2 In some copies of the 1570L having the B or C version, and in all later editions, BI:LE:DVL:|GERID. has been added above and below the Tropic of Cancer.
8.3: Between 1581 and 1584, the 20 and 30 degrees South latitude lines now do extend to the outer decorative border. Further, the islands in the Atlantic received much more extended hachuring, first the hachuring was about 2 mm long, now about 4 mm; in the South-Eastern part of the Red sea, Cubitza|rif became Cubitza:|rif; Marzuzo in CEFALA became Marzazo; Matun on Madagascar became Matan, Mocouar opposite Aden became Moconar. The sea itself has also been re-engraved. The stippling of the sea, which used to enter textblocks in it slightly, is now clearly demarcated.
8.4: between 1588 and 1592, the women in the cartouche receive extra shading, more hachuring and thicker engraving.
8.5: during or after 1595L inclusion of a colon after the sea name OCEANVS | AETHIO.
8.6: Some time between 1606 and 1612 the date was removed. Some 1612S copies still have the date, and some do not.
The plate used for this map began to crack in the title cartouche between 1595 and 1598. Then the top right I and second right A began to join. Later the third and fourth A on the right join as well. These unintentional "states" can be used to date the map more precisely over the period 1598-1612.

Remarks: I am grateful to Richard Betz, Wulf Bodenstein and Ashley Bayton-Williams for help in establishing these states. Note that the facsimile of the 1570(A) Latin Theatrum of the University Library of Amsterdam (OF 72-30) contains spurious lines in the degree scale lower left which are not present in the original. Note the presence of a "ghost monster" in the sea east of the Arab peninsula which fades away after 1584L.
This map was depicted on a stamp worth R.1,05 issued in 1993 by the government of Botswana.

Cartographic sources: Gastaldi (abt. 1505-1566) who made an 8-sheet map of Africa in 1564. Elements of the world map by Mercator of 1569 are also present (Meurer p. 151, Karrow 30/98, 56/17 p. 243-245, 388-393). Brandmair mentions Ruscelli, Forlani and Diogo Homem. The sea battle depicted on this map is based on the America map of Diego Guttiérez of 1562, engraved by Cock.

References: O.I. Norwich (1983) Maps of Africa, Donker, Johannesburg, map 10, pp. 48-49. An elaborate description of this map, tracing and specifying Ortelius place name sources, and comparing them to Gastaldi is given by Bodenstein, W. "Ortelius' Maps of Africa", p. 185-208 in: Van den Broecke, M., van der Krogt, P. and Meurer, P. (eds) "Abraham Ortelius and the First Atlas", HES Publishers, 't Goy-Houten, HES publishers, 1998. R.L. Betz "The mapping of Africa. A cartobibliography of the African continent to 1700." t'Goy-Houten, Hes & de Graaf, 2007.

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