Carta geographica del Capo di Buona Speranza

  • Translation

Article ID AF0128

Title

Carta geographica del Capo di Buona Speranza

Description

Map shows Table Bay in the Atlantic Ocean with Robben Island and the Cape of Good Hope with the coastal city of Cape Town and its landmark Table Mountain in South Africa. It also shows the extent of the Cape of Good Hope settlement beyond The Castle and Liesbeeck River.

Year

ca. 1750

Artist

Albrizzi (1698-1777)

The Italian Giovanni Battista (Giovambattista) Albrizzi took inspiration for his best-known atlas - the Nieuwe En Beknopte Handatlas...by Isaak Tirion from the dutch and french mapmakers, translated them into Italian and published it in Venice. Albrizzi was also responsible for publishing an edition of Guillaume De L'Isle's atlas named: Atlante Novissimo.

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.

Place of Publication Florence
Dimensions (cm)33 x 42,5 cm
ConditionVery good
Coloringoriginal colored
TechniqueCopper print

Reproduction:

37.50 €

( A reproduction can be ordered individually on request. )