Abyssinia, Ethiopia

One of the earliest accounts on the 1500s Ethiopia comes, as usual, from Portuguese explorers and members of religious envoys. One of the interesting aspects of those accounts is the way they used key names such as Ethiopia and Abyssinia. In 1516, Portuguese traveller and official Tome P´ires wrote about Abyssinia as follows

“Abyssinia is  bounded on the Red Sea side by Arabia Felix; on the African side by the deserts and by part of Ethiopia; on the ocean side from Guardafui to Sofala it is sixty leagues away from the sea. They are Christians. They have much land and they have both warriors and merchants. They have foodstuffs in their land and gold. They have no seaports and come to trade in Zeila and Berbera and in the Arabian ports along the strait. These people are renowned among the Ethiopians. They all have woolly hair, and instead of being baptized they are branded on their forehead. They have priests, patriarchs and other monks. They go on pilgrimages to Jerusalem and Mount Senai every year. They are considered in these parts to be loyal, true and faithful knights, and often from being slaves they rise to be kings, chiefly in Bengal.” (p.8)

A key indicator that Pires was talking Ethiopians is the following statement on the role of River Nile in the diplomatic relations between Ethiopia and Egypt. He noted:

 “The people of Egypt say that this miracle [the waters of Nile] proceeds from the Abyssinians, a Christian people, and for this reason the Abyssinians can go freely and untaxed throughout the Sultan’s land, and are held in esteem.” (pp.7-8).

(Source, Tome Pires, The Suma Oriental of Tom´e Pires: an Account of the East, from the Red Sea to Japan, Written in Malacca and India in 1512–1515, trans. Armando Cortesao (London, 1944; repr. New ˜ Delhi, 1990).

1554 map
Münster, Sebastian, 1489-1552.
“Totius Africæ tabula, & descriptio uniuersalis, etiam ultra Ptolemæi limites extensa.” Woodcut map, with added color, 26 x 35 cm. From Münster’sCosmographia uniuersalis (Basel, 1554). [Historic Maps Collection]

The earliest obtainable map of the whole continent of Africa. Because it was issued with some variations in both of Münster’s very popular works,Geographia (1540-1552) and Cosmographia (1544-1628), the map is difficult to date precisely. Münster was a professor of Hebrew at Heidelberg and then at Basel, where he settled in 1529 and later died of the plague. By soliciting descriptions and maps from German scholars and foreigners, he was able over time to include up-to-date information in the various editions of his atlases, becoming the most influential cartographer of the mid-16th century. Münster was the first mapmaker to print separate maps of the four then known continents (Europe, Africa, Asia, America).

1584 map
Ortelius, Abraham,1527-1598.
“Africae tabula noua.” Copperplate map, with added color, 37 x 49 cm. From Ortelius’s Theatrum orbis terrarum (Antwerp, 1584). [Historic Maps Collection]

The standard map of Africa for the last quarter of the sixteenth century. Ortelius lived and died in Antwerp, where he had a bookselling business. He traveled to many of the great book fairs, established contacts with literati in many countries, collected maps, and became an authority on historical cartography. In 1570, he published the Theatrum, an atlas of fifty-three maps, the first collection of uniform-sized maps depicting all the countries of the known world—the first real atlas. Each map had text on the back describing the country depicted and listing Ortelius’s sources of information. The atlas was phenomenally successful and revered, printed in many editions in seven languages for more than forty years (1570-1612), with an ever increasing number of maps.

More rare maps can be retrieved from https://www.raremaps.com/gallery/browse/category/Africa/East%20Africa

Map 1. Ortelius' famous map of the Kingdom of Prester John (Ethiopia), from  Ortelius' Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, the first modern atlas of the world.

(Source: Abraham Ortelius: Presbiteri Johannis, Sive, Abissinorum Imperii Descriptio, 1598).Some of the following maps have been taken from Princeton University website, The evolution of Map of Africa, It can be retrieved from http://libweb5.princeton.edu/visual_materials/maps/websites/africa/maps-continent/continent.html

1644 map
Blaeu, Willem Janszoon, 1571-1638.
“Africae nova descriptio.” Copperplate carte à figures map, with added color, 35 x 45 cm. From the second volume of Blaeu’s Le theatre dv monde; ov Novvel atlas contenant les chartes et descriptions de tous les païs de la terre (Amsterdam, 1644). Gift of J. Monroe Thorington, Class of 1915. [Rare Books Division]

One of the most decorative and popular of all early maps of Africa, from the “golden age” of Dutch mapmaking. First issued in 1630, the map was reprinted many times between 1631 and 1667, appearing in Latin, French, German, Dutch, and Spanish editions of Blaeu’s atlases. The maps and atlases of the Blaeu family business, carried on after Willem’s death by sons Cornelis and Joan, marked the epitome of fine engraving and coloring, elaborate cartouches and pictorial detail, and fine calligraphy—the most magnificent work of its type ever produced.

In the format called carte à figures, this appealing map contains oval views of, presumably, the major cities and trading ports of Africa at the time: Tangier and Ceuta (Morocco), Tunis (Tunisia), Alexandria and Cairo (Egypt), Mozambique (seaport of Mozambique), Elmina (Ghana, site of the largest and most spectacular castle in Africa built by the Portuguese), and Grand Canary (Canary Islands) Side panels depict costumed natives from areas visited along the coasts. The interior is decorated with exotic animals (lions, elephants, ostriches), which were (and still are) a major source of fascination for the public. The Nile (today’s White Nile) is shown flowing from the Ptolemaic lakes of Zaire and Zaflan. Flying fish and strange sea creatures cavort in the oceans, and the sailing ships all bear Dutch flags. Coastal names are engraved inward to give a clear, sharp outline to the continent.

Probably the most interesting cartographic feature is the identification of specific large territories or kingdoms, which have been outlined in color, including a huge Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and Monomotapa (all of southern Africa). But these seem to reflect a European sense of nationhood—something presumed and projected upon a virtually unexplored canvas—more than the actual experience of traders and explorers, who would continue to report on hundreds of smaller ethnic enclaves and political fiefdoms during the next 250 years.