Filippo Pigafetta. Tabulam Hanc Aegypti etc. 1598.

PIGAFETTA, Filippo (1533-1604).
Tabulam hanc Aegypti.
Engraved map.
From Jan Huygen Van Linschoten's Intinerario.
London, 1598.
22 1/2" x 16 3/8" sheet; 34" x 27 1/2" framed.

Lovely example of this important map with strong impressions. Very rare large-scale map of Africa, redesigned issue of Pigafetta’s 1590 map, with more decorative features. Extremely detailed, depicting Africa from the Mediterranean to the Cape, but excluding West Africa. This map, prepared on the basis of notes by Duarte López who lived in Africa from 1578-1587, provided Europeans with one of the earliest detailed depictions of the continent based on first-hand information. Aside from their historical importance, these maps are among the most beautiful delineations of Africa and reflect the best of late 16th century Italian Lafreri school engraving. Depicting the eastern portion, including all south of the western bulge, It is one of the few early maps to make a meaningful alteration in the depiction of Africa, changing the two lakes that are the sources of the Nile from a side to side to a vertical arrangements.

Tooley, MCCS No. 29, #134; Norwich, Maps of Africa, #16