1686 Dapper View of Alexandria, Egypt

Alexandria: Ancient Glory, Ottoman Port.

This striking 1686 Olfert Dapper view of Alexandria, Egypt, presents the legendary Mediterranean port as it appeared to European readers in the late 17th century. Viewed dramatically from the sea, the fortified city spreads across the horizon while an animated harbor crowded with sailing vessels dominates the foreground. The image combines contemporary Alexandria with reminders of its celebrated ancient and Christian past, reflecting the enduring European fascination with a city once home to the Ptolemies, the Great Library, and the Pharos of Alexandria.

A Closer Look

Alexandria is depicted from an elevated perspective offshore, with its walls, towers, mosques, houses, and other structures densely arranged along the coast. The harbor is particularly animated, filled with European-style sailing ships, smaller craft, and boats moving between the city and the open Mediterranean. A fortress guards the harbor entrance, underscoring Alexandria's continuing strategic importance as an Ottoman port linking Egypt with the wider Mediterranean world.

Fifteen locations are identified alphabetically and keyed to legends in Dutch at the upper left and French at the upper right. Features include mosques, the canal connecting Alexandria with the Nile, and sites linked to the city's ancient and Christian history, including the traditional site of the martyrdom of St. Catherine. Dapper thus presents Alexandria as both a functioning 17th-century city and a landscape layered with the remains and memories of its extraordinary past.

Publication History and Census

This view was prepared for Olfert Dapper's celebrated geographical description of Africa, one of the most extensively illustrated European works on the continent published during the 17th century. The present example appeared in the 1686 French edition, Description de l'Afrique, translated from Dapper's original Dutch work. Like many of the views published in Dapper's account, it was intended not merely as a topographical record but as a visual introduction to one of Africa's most historically important cities.

Cartographer

Olfert Dapper (1636 - December 29, 1689) was a Dutch geographer, polyglot, and historian. Born in Amsterdam, he attended the University of Utrecht, where he was registered as a student in 1658. Two years later he began signing doctor medicinæ, but there in no evidence that he ever received any medical training or education. Dapper published a five-volume book about the history of Amsterdam entitled, Historische Beschrijving der Stadt Amsterdam and in 1665 published a Dutch translation from the Greek of the Histories of Herodotus. His best-known work, Naukeurige Beschrijvingen der Afrikaensche gewesten (Description of Africa), was published in 1668 and subsequently published in English by John Ogilby in 1670 and in French in 1686. Although Dapper never traveled to Africa, he took advantage of numerous reports from adventurers in order to compile this authoritative work over the course of three years.   Further Details...

Source

Dapper, O., Description de L'Afrique, Contenant Les Noms, la Situation et les Confins de toutes ses Parties, leurs Rivieres, lerus Villes et leurs Habitations, leurs Plants et leurs Animaux; les Mœurs, les Coûtumes, la Langue, les Richesses, la Religion, et le Gouvernement de ses Peuples. Avec Des Cartes des Etats, des Provinces et des Villes, et des Figures en taille-douce, qui representent les habits et les principales Ceremonies des Habitans, les Plantes et les Animaux les moins connus (Amsterdam) 1686.    

Description of Africa (Naukeurige Beschrijvinge der Afrikaensche Gewesten in the original archaic Dutch), first published in 1668, is an enthographic book which describes Africa. Written by the geographer Olmert Dapper and published by Jacob Van Meurs in two Dutch editions in 1668 and 1676, this work is considered to be one of the foundational works of African studies. Over the course of three years, Dapper consults numerous reports concerning the history and geography of the continent (as it was understood by 17th century Europeans) and travelogues. It is said that Dapper relied heavily on the records of the Dutch West India Company, although none of the original reports have been located by historians. In Description of Africa, per the Fondation Dapper, Dapper, 'far from passing judgement on the societies described and by avoiding ethnocentric connotations, was the first to apply an interdisciplinary approach, adroitly combining geography, economics, politics, medicine, and a study of culture.' Dapper did not write a 'work of exotic curiosities, but a work for posterity.' Description of Africa was published in English by John Ogilby in 1670 and a German translation appeared the following year. A French translation of the work was published in 1686.

Condition

Very good. Verso repair of centerfold separation. Blank on verso.