L'Africa secondo le ultime osservazioni

Highly attractive map of the African continent with a large cartouche illustrating the flora and fauna of the landmass.

According to the title, this map was drawn from the latest discoveries, however, in reality, its geography is quite antiquated. However, as an artistic piece, it would be difficult to find a finer example of a map from the late 18th century. The cartouche on the lower left is reminiscent of maps from the late 17th or early 18th century. Africa, allegorically represented as a queen, is reclining on a lion and a crocodile, holding an elephant tusk while the famous and mythical African Horned Serpent is portrayed in the foreground. Unusually, both the map and the cartouche are in original hand colour. [AFR5940] (BC)