This 1743 map shows western Africa from the territory of present-day Gabon in the south to Niger, Mali, and Mauritania in the north. The map was published in Nuremberg, Germany, by the firm of Homännische Erben, meaning the successors of the Nuremberg engraver and publisher Johann Baptist Homann (1663-1724) and his son, Johann Christoph Homann (1703-30). It is based on an earlier work by the great French mapmaker Jean Baptiste d’Anville (1697-1782). The illustration at the lower left depicts an African village. Items such as dress, houses and other buildings, and economic activities are keyed by letter to an explanatory index, in Latin, at the bottom of the map. Place names and notes on the map are mainly in Latin, but in a few places French and Dutch also are used. The Gold Coast, for example, is identified as Littus Auri (Latin), Cote d’Or (French), and Goud Kust (Dutch). Ancient geographers referred to the whole of Africa as "Aethiopia," a name that, from the 15th century onward, gave way to the term Nigritia to designate the interior of the continent. This map uses both names.
<br>Africa, West
1743<div style="display: none;">date QS:P571,+1743-00-00T00:00:00Z/9</div>
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<ul><li>Gallery: <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.wdl.org/en/item/2586/">http://www.wdl.org/en/item/2586/</a></li></ul>