"Het Gedeelte van Opper-Ethiopien. Waar in Leggen t' Ryk van Abissinien, en Nubien, Enz...", Sanson, Nicolas

This attractive map focuses on the fictitious Ptolemaic twin lakes of Zaire and Zaflan that were purported to be the source of the Nile, located at the foot of the mythical Lunae Montes, or Mountains of the Moon, often identified as the Ruwenzori Mountains in Uganda. The map is filled with fictitious place names and topography, all meticulously detailed. It was engraved by Antoine de Winter. This map appeared in Algemeene Weereld-Beschryving, nae de Rechte Verdeeling der Landschappen, Plaetsen, Zeeën, Rivieren, &c. Geographisch, Politisch, Historisch, Chronologisch en Genealogisch, a Dutch edition of A. Phérotée de la Croix's Nouvelle Methode Pour Apprendre Facilement la Geographie Universelle, which first appeared in 1690. The Dutch edition was published by Francois Halma and included 98 maps and views.

Sanson's small maps from his L'Afrique en Plusieurs Cartes..., first published in 1656 and engraved by A. Peyrounin, were copied several times by various map publishers. Johann David Zunners made copies of Sanson's maps for his German translation of Die Gantze Erd-Kugel in 1679. Johannes Ribbius and Simon de Vries published copies in 1682 and 1683, with new maps engraved by Antoine d'Winter. The plates were later sold to Francois Halma, who used them in 1699 and then again in 1705 with the titles re-engraved in Dutch. The titles on the d'Winter plates were re-engraved back into French, and then used by Nicholas Chemereau in 1715 and by Henri du Sauzet in 1738.

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Condition: A

A dark impression, issued folding on a bright sheet with minor offsetting. There is a binding trim at left and a short, associated binding tear that has been archivally repaired on verso.