Reference Books
The mapping of Africa
By Richard Betz
Aug 22, 2007, 05:03

Volume 7 in the Utrechtse Historisch-Cartografische Studies.
The Mapping of Africa systematically categorizes and provides an overview of all printed maps showing the entire African continent published from 1508 to 1700.

32 x 24 cm. Clothbound with full colour dust jacket. Richly illustrated in full colour 530 pp.

The authors have undertaken a review of the literature, conducted an exhaustive investigation in many major libraries and private collections, analyzed these findings, and then compiled information on 174 distinctly separate maps of the African continent.

The Introduction contains information about the mapping of Africa before 1508, important world maps which include Africa, and a presentation of the major cartographic models developed for this book.

The following are some English-language reviews of this book:

Reference and Research Book News, Incorporating University Press Book News, February 2009, 24(1): 323:   "... an impressive resource of the maps of the continent of Africa from earliest times up to 1700, with 174 maps featured in individual descriptive entries.  The cartobibliography is a catalog raisonné, providing technical information on the map, its date, mapmaker, title, image, scale, type of printing process, dimensions, notable characteristics, description, and a lengthy discussion of publication information. An image of each map is included, often in color, in plates of excellent quality.".

Amazon.com web site:  "As an historian of Africa I have a practical interest in this book because it collects in one place, more exhaustively than in any other volume published to date, a huge range of maps documenting the growth of knowledge about the African continent. It is the definitive text and no library, collector of maps, or historian of Africa should be without a copy. Moreover, it is a beautifully produced book with excellent reproductions of the maps."

The Journal of Spatial Science, June 2008, 53(1):156-158:  "The Mapping of Africa is an educational volume and an essential book on the shelves of libraries for cartographers, geographers and historians and indeed, at secondary and tertiary educational institutions. Academic Libraries as well as national libraries, especially in Africa, are encouraged to obtain this book. The painstaking labour to analyse and record in detail the information gleaned and possibly deduced from the 174 graphics is worthy of the cost of the publication.  A word-limited review such as this cannot possibly do justice to such a scholarly piece of work which is an invaluable addition to range of publication on the history of cartography and geographical knowledge of the past five centuries."

IMCoS Journal, Autumn 2008, Number 114: 24-25:  "Prior to the publication of this monumental study, reference works on the early maps of Africa were predominately catalogues of collections and exhibitions with no pretensions to be comprehensive. ... . For the collector of maps of Africa, this remarkable volume is surely an essential reference."

The Boston Map Society Newsletter, 2007: "... the legacy of Robinson, Tooley, Harley, and Woodward rest in good hands.  This cartobibliography will continue to prompt the integration of past and present, even as we explore the next horizon."