Nubie Abissinie et Cote d’Ajan.

Title

Nubie Abissinie et Cote d’Ajan.

Description

Map shows Ethiopia and Somalia in Africa.

ca. 1700

Artist

Vaugondy,de (1723-1786)

Didier Robert de Vaugondy (1723 -1786) also known as Le Sieur or Monsieur Robert, and his son, were leading cartographers in France during the 18th century. In 1757, Gilles and Didier Robert De Vaugondy published The Atlas Universel, one of the most important atlases of the 18th century. To produce the atlas, the Vaugondys integrated older sources with more modern surveyed maps. They verified and corrected the latitude and longitude of many regional maps in the atlas with astronomical observations. The older material was revised with the addition of many new place names. In 1760, Didier Robert de Vaugondy was appointed geographer to Louis XV. Gilles and Didier Robert De Vaugondy produced their maps and terrestrial globes working together as father and son. Globes of a variety of sizes were made by gluing copperplate-printed gores on a plaster-finished papier-mache core, a complicated and expensive manufacturing process, employing several specialists. In some cases it is uncertain whether Gilles or Didier made a given map. Gilles often signed maps as M.Robert, while Didier commonly signed his maps as ""Robert de Vaugondy"", or added ""fils"" or ""filio"" after his name. The Robert de Vaugondys were descended from the Nicolas Sanson family through Sanson's grandson, Pierre Moulard-Sanson. From him, they inherited much of Sanson's cartographic material, which they combined with maps and plates acquired after Hubert Jaillot's death in 1712 to form the basis the Atlas Universel.

Historical Description

Since the 14th century, the Ethiopian rulers have sought contacts and alliances with the Christian empires in late medieval Europe. European knights of fortune came repeatedly to the Negus court, and European art was in vogue in Ethiopia. In 1493 the Portuguese Pêro da Covilhã reached the Negus court. He was supposed to promote a Portuguese-Ethiopian alliance since Portugal was then beginning to build its rule in the Indian Ocean. In 1543, Portuguese auxiliary troops under the son of Vasco da Gama, Cristóvão da Gama, supported the Ethiopians at the Negus' cry for help against the troops of Ahmed Graññ from the Sultanate of Adal, whom they inflicted devastating defeat. However, their plan to convert the country to Catholicism failed. In the course of colonialism, Ethiopia had to resist the influence of European powers, first under the Emperor Tewodros of the British Ethiopian expedition of 1868, then at the end of the 19th century under the influence of the Italians and their colony Eritrea. At the Battle of Adua, the Ethiopians in 1896, under Emperor Menelik II, repelled the Italian invaders. This result is still considered an important victory for an African army against a European army and has since become an integral part of Ethiopia's national consciousness.