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Copper-engraved map, hand-colored (original). 38.8x55 cm (15¼x21¾"), archivally matted & framed under UV protective glass.

Linschoten's striking map of Eastern Africa and the Indian Ocean, filled with cartographic and iconographic details, including sailing ships and sea battles, sea monsters, animals within Africa, compass roses and a strap-work cartouche. The map shows the eastern side of Africa and part of the Indian Ocean, including Madagascar, with the extreme southern portions of present-day India and Ceylon appearing in the upper right corner. The western Nile source lake of Zaflan is shown. Above this lake is a visual representation of the Kingdom of Prester John in Ethiopia. Much of the map detail was likely based on portolan charts of the Portuguese, especially those by Bartolomeu Lasso. Linschoten was “one of the pathfinders for the first Dutch voyages to the East” (Schilder, p. 195). He was in the service of the Portuguese as Secretary to the Portuguese Archbishop of Goa in India from 1583 to 1589, where he had access to many Portuguese portolans as well as commercial information, for Goa at this time was the commercial and political center for the Portugal Empire in the East. Handsomely framed by Schein & Schein, San Francisco. Provenance: Barbara Keck, purchased from Martayan Lan.