Giacomo Gastaldi and Paolo Forlani | Africa a veteribus… Venice: Paolo Forlani, 1566

Giacomo Gastaldi and Paolo Forlani

Africa a veteribus… Venice: Paolo Forlani, 1566

485 x 715mm., engraved map of Africa, on two sheets joined

A HIGHLY DECORATIVE edition of Forlani’s two-sheet map of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, probably originally based on manuscript sources by Giacomo Gastaldi. Although Forlani had printed similar maps before (see Tooley 67), this 1566 example is replete with embellishments such as sea monsters, ships, and a depiction of Noah’s ark, with a dove, complete with olive branch, flying overhead. This edition extends further eastwards and includes parts of the west coast of India.

LITERATURE:

Tooley, “Maps in Italian Atlases of the Sixteenth-Century”, 74, locating one example only; Woodward, 18.02