1696 Van Keulen Nautical Map of Africa: Cape Verde to the Cape of Good Hope

West Africa at the Dawn of the Atlantic Age.

This is Johannes van Keulen's scarce 1696 chart of the west coast of Africa, from Cape Verde to the Cape of Good Hope; here in striking original color. The map captures West Africa at a transitional moment: Atlantic commerce and the slave trade were expanding rapidly, European commercial rivalry was intensifying, and new African powers were emerging that would reshape the region.

A Closer Look

This east-oriented chart presents the African coast, including modern-day Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, the Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and South Africa. As a nautical chart, it illustrates the coasts and seas well, noting anchorages and depth soundings. The chart is embellished with rhumb lines, two compass roses, ships, and sea monsters. The decorative cartouche in the top right features an African King astride an elephant, native warriors and European traders, and African figures handling piles of elephant tusks.

Publication History and Census

This chart was engraved in 1696 for inclusion in Johannes Van Keulen's atlases. This state of the chart, with the date in the cartouche, would appear in print until about 1720, at which point the date was removed. The chart is scarce: we see only three examples in institutional collections: the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the Université Catholique de l'Ouest, and the Deutsches Museum München.

Cartographer

Johannes Van Keulen (1654 – 1715) was a Dutch cartographer active in Amsterdam during the late 17th century. Van Keulen was the son of Lucas van Keulen. Van Keulen's firm, ‘In de Gekroonde Lootsman' (In the Crowned Pilot), was founded in 1678 and registered with the Amsterdam bookseller's guild as 'Cross staff-maker and bookseller.' (The cross-staff is a nautical instrument used to determine latitude.) Two years later, in 1680, they obtained a patent from the States General of Holland and West Friesland to publish nautical charts and atlases. Together with his partner, the cartographer Claes Janz Vooght, Van Keulen published numerous atlases and nautical charts, including the Zee Atlas and Nieuwe Lichtende Zee-Fakkel. It was a massive five-volume atlas containing more than 130 nautical charts. The Zee-Fakkel established the Van Keulen firm as the pre-eminent maker of Dutch sea charts in the late 17th and early 18th century. In 1714, one year before Johannes Van Keulen's death, his son, Gerard van Keulen (1678 - 1726), took charge. Gerard continued to update and republish the Zee-Fakkel until his own death in 1726. The firm was later passed on to Gerard's son, Johannes II Van Keulen (1704 - 1755), who significantly updated the atlas, especially with regard to Asia, issuing the 1753 4th Volume, known as the 'Secret Atlas'. The final editions of the atlas were published by Gerard Hulst van Keulen (1733 - 1801), Joannes II's son. The final true Van Keulen edition of the Zee-Fakkel was published posthumously in 1803. It is noteworthy that though ostensibly controlled by the Van Keulen men, it was the Van Keulen widows who maintained and managed the firm in the periods following their husbands' deaths. After the death of Gerard Hulst Van Keulen's son, Johannes Hulst Van Keulen, ownership of the family plates and business fell into the hands of the Swart family, who continued to publish until the company closed its doors 1885, ending a cartographic legacy spanning nearly 207 years.   Further Details...

Source

Keulen, J. van, Zee-Atlas (Amsterdam) c. 1696.    

Condition

Very good. Centerfold scuffing in sea area reinstated in manuscript. Else excellent with superb original color.

References

OCLC 494324822. Afriterra 2711. Rumsey 14580.364. Not in Norwich.