Cap de bone Esperance / Nach der XLIII. Das aussehen des Forts

Title

Cap de bone Esperance / Nach der XLIII. Das aussehen des Forts

Description

The view shows Table Mountain and the Dutch fortress at the Cape of Good Hope, with sailing ships in the foreground. Above is a cartouche depicting the Dutch fortress.

ca. 1719

Artist

Mallet (1630-1706)

Alain Manesson Mallet (1630- 1706 ) was a French cartographer and engineer. He started his career as a soldier in the army of Louis XIV, became a Sergeant-Major in the artillery and an Inspector of Fortifications. He also served under the King of Portugal, before returning to France, and his appointment to the court of Louis XIV. His military engineering and mathematical background led to his position teaching mathematics at court. His major publications were Description de L'Univers (1683) in 5 volumes, and Les Travaux de Mars ou l'Art de la Guerre (1684) in 3 volumes. His Description de L'Universe contains a wide variety of information, including star maps, maps of the ancient and modern world, and a synopsis of the customs, religion and government of the many nations included in his text. It has been suggested that his background as a teacher led to his being concerned with entertaining his readers. This concern manifested itself in the charming harbor scenes and rural landscapes that he included beneath his description of astronomical concepts and diagrams. Mallet himself drew most of the figures that were engraved for this book.

Historical Description

The Cape of Good Hope is a very striking cape near the southern tip of Africa that was once feared for its cliffs. Bartolomeo Diaz named the rocky headland that juts out more than 20 kilometers into the sea Cabo das Tormentas (Cape of Storms). The Portuguese King John II is said to have given it the new name because he rightly hoped that the sea route to India had now been discovered. After examining the few documents that still exist, historians today disagree as to whether Diaz had not already used the name Cabo da Boa Esperança (Cape of Good Hope). The Cape was first sighted by a European in April 1488 by the Portuguese navigator and explorer Bartolomeu Diaz, when he had already circumnavigated the southern tip of Africa (far from the coast) and was on his way back north. Diaz had set out with two caravels and a supply ship on a top-secret voyage of discovery in the summer of 1487. Because of the decreed secrecy of the voyage of discovery, no written records exist. With the opening of the Suez Canal in November 1869, the route around the southern tip of Africa suddenly lost its importance.