1749 Vaugondy Map of Southwestern Africa

Beautiful hand colored map of southwestern Africa depicting pre-colonial kingdoms.

This is a hand colored 1749 Didier Robert de Vaugondy map of southwestern Africa. Stretching along the coastline from Gabon to Angola, the map depicts several pre-colonial African kingdoms. Myriad rivers are labeled, including the Congo River (Zaire R). Mountain ranges snake across parts of the map and towns dot the landscape.

The Kingdom of Gabon (Royaume de Gabon ou Pongo) is included at the top of the map just inside the border. Just below the Kingdom of Gabon lies the Kingdom of Loango (Royaume de Loango). The Kingdom of Loango existed approximately from the 16th to the 19th century. The earliest reference to Loango in a documentary source is a mention by a priest in the Kingdom of Kongo that King Diogo I sent Christian missionaries to Loango. Although documentation about Loango is scarce, it is certain that the kingdom came to an end after the Conference of Berlin in 1885, when European colonial powers divided uncolonized Africa between themselves.

The Kingdom of Kongo (Royaume de Kongo) was a mostly independent state from around 1390 to 1891. From 1891 to 1914 it was a vassal state to the Kingdom of Portugal. After 1914, following a Portuguese victory against a revolt, the monarchy was forcibly abolished and the territory was assimilated into the colony of Angola.

The earliest reference to the Kingdom of Matamba (Royaume de Matamba) is in reference to the Kingdom giving tribute to the King of Kongo in 1530. Following the arrival of the Portuguese in the late 16th century, Matamba, and the neighboring Kingdom of Ndongo (Royaume de Dungo) began a series of wars against the Portuguese and between themselves. For the next two centuries, Matamba and Ndongo fought a series of wars and civil wars and never truly found peace and appear to have eventually been conquered by the Portuguese.

Unfortunately, our research did not discover a history of the Kingdom of Benguela (Royaume de Benguela), although there is a province in modern day Angola that is named Benguela, or of the Kingdom of Macoco (Royaume du Macoco)

This map was published by Gilles Robert de Vaugondy in his Atlas Universel, Portatif et Militaire in the 1749 edition.

Cartographer

Robert de Vaugondy (fl. c. 1716 - 1786) was a French publishing firm run by Gilles (1688 - 1766) and Didier (c. 1723 - 1786) Robert de Vaugondy. They were map publishers, engravers, and cartographers active in Paris during the mid-18th century. Gilles was the nephew of Pierre Moulard Sanson, and was thus the inheritor of Nicolas Sanson (1600 - 1667), whose stock supplied much of their initial material and whose legacy supplied much of their initial reputation. Graduating from Sanson's maps, Gilles, and more particularly Didier, began to produce their own substantial corpus. The Vaugondys were well-respected for the detail and accuracy of their maps, for which they capitalized on the resources of 18th-century Paris to compile the most accurate and fantasy-free maps possible. The Vaugondys compiled each map based on their own geographic knowledge, scholarly research, journals of contemporary explorers and missionaries, and direct astronomical observation. Moreover, unlike many cartographers of this period, they took pains to reference their sources. Nevertheless, even in 18th-century Paris, geographical knowledge was limited - especially regarding those unexplored portions of the world, including the poles, the Pacific Northwest of America, and the interiors of Africa, Australia, and South America. This gap in knowledge let to divergent geographical approaches, epitomized by the Buache-Vaugondy debates at the French Academie des Sciences - one of the key pivotal moments in the history of modern cartography. Buache, in his Exposé, argued for a Theoretical Geography, which postulated that a systematic and scientific approach could accurately fill in the map in advance of actual exploration. Vaugondy's scathing critique of the Exposé, presented as the Considerations, argued for empirical restraint in cartography, suggesting that unexplored areas should simply be left blank and that mapping itself should rely on documentable current discovery. While Bucahe, with more political acumen and connections, initially came out ahead in the debates, the subsequent decades saw voyages of discovery by Captains James Cook, Jean Francois de Galaup de La Perouse, and George Vancouver disprove most of his map. Nonetheless, by that time, Vaugondy, advanced in age, did not live long enough to see his approach become ascendant. Didier died more celebrated than solvent, and his maps were acquired by Jean-Baptiste Fortin, who in 1787 sold them to Charles-François Delamarche (1740 - 1817). Delamarche, more businessman than cartographer, prospered from the Vaugondy maps, but defrauded Vaugondy's widow, Marie Louise Rosalie Dangy, of her rightful inheritance and may even have killed her.   Further Details...

Source

Robert de Vaugondy, G., Atlas Portatif, Universel, et Militaire, (Paris: Vaugondy, Durand, Pissot) 1749.    

Condition

Very good. Blank on verso. Original press mark visible.

References

Pedley, M. S., Bel et Utile, p. 206, 438. OCLC 11460626.