1749 Vaugondy Map of Zanzibar, Africa

Incredible hand colored map of eastern Africa depicting Lake Malawi and Mombasa.

This is a hand colored 1749 Didier Robert de Vaugondy map of Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, and Malawi, and Zanzibar. The map presents the African coast from just north of the Equator to Mozambique and from the 'unknown interior' of the continent to the Indian Ocean. An incomplete, embryonic depiction of Lake Malawi (Grand Lac Marawi) is at the center of the map. Though Lake Malawi had not yet been 'discovered', it had appeared on early maps of Africa, including Emmanuel Bowen's 1747 A New and Accurate Map of Africa. Lake Malawi was not officially discovered until Portuguese trader Candido Jose da Costa Cardoso stumbled upon it in 1849 – one hundred years after Vaugondy's representation here. Vaugondy's and Bowen's inclusion of Lake Malawi is most likely a prescient interpretation of indigenous reports brought to Europe by 17th century Portuguese traders. Its form would be followed by subsequent cartographers well into the mid-19th century when the explorations of John Hanning Speke, David Livingstone, Richard Francis Burton and others would at last yield a detailed study of Africa's interior.

The Zanzibar archipelago, which lies off the coast of Tanzania, is made up of two islands, Unguja (usually referred to as Zanzibar) and Pemba, which is also labeled here. Zanzibar has a long history, and was most likely mentioned in a Greco-Roman text which dates from between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD. In 1749, when Didier Robert de Vaugondy composed this map, Zanzibar was under the control of the Sultanate of Oman. Zanzibar and Pemba became British protectorates in 1890, and remained so until 1963, when it became an independent country within the Commonwealth. In April 1964, the People's Republic of Zanzibar and Pemba merged with Tanganyika to become the United Republic of Tanzania.

Several cities are labeled, including Mombasa (Monbaza), Kenya. Mombasa has a note associated with it, stating that it is the residence of the Roi de Melinde, who appears in Rabelais's work La vie de Gargantua et de Pantagruel. Numerous rivers and tributaries are depicted, including the Zambeze River near the bottom of the map. Different regions of the map are labeled as belonging to a certain tribe. A note is included along the left border which states, 'The interior or the country is unknown, but it is known that it is ravaged by frequent incursions by Monbos, Zimbes, Jagas, Galles, etc' (L'interieur du Pays est inconnu, mais on sait qu'il est ravage par les incursions fréquentes des Monbos, des Zonves, des, Jagas, des Galles, etc.).

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 pressmark visible.

References

Pedley, M. S., Bel et Utile, p. 207, 441. OCLC 159770058.