1749 Vaugondy Map of Western Africa

Africa's Slave Coast.

This is a 1749 Didier Robert de Vaugondy map of western Africa. This map combines the names of African kingdoms (or at least French transliterations of them) with those used by Europeans for parts of the region. Between the 15th and 19th centuries, this region of Africa was the locus of the Atlantic Slave Trade, where millions of Africans were kidnapped and sold into slavery in Brazil, the Caribbean, Mexico, and the modern-day United States.

A Closer Look

Numerous kingdoms and other political entities are identified here, including Dahomey (Royaume de Dahome), the Gold Coast (Cote d'Or) and the Royaume de Mandinga. Villages are labeled throughout the region, and rivers are illustrated. For a modern audience, the most striking notation is Cote des Esclaves, Slave Coast. For nearly 400 years, this region, along with Portuguese Angola, witnessed the capture of over 12 million individuals who were then enslaved and sold to colonial governments on the other side of the Atlantic. The vast majority of these enslaved peoples ended up in Brazil and on islands in the Caribbean.

Publication History and Census

This map was created and published by Gilles and Didier Robert de Vaugondy in 1749 in their Atlas Portatif, Universel, et Militaire. Three examples of the separate map are cataloged in OCLC: Muhlenberg College, the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, and the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek.

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. Original platemark visible.

References

Pedley, M. S., Bel et Utile, p. 206, 435. OCLC 159769992.