Map of the Atlantic Ocean and Africa

This highly detailed and artistic mapby Arnold F. van Landgren is one of the highlights of the Itinerario. The map shows the Atlantic Ocean, the west coast of sub-Saharan Africa and a small slice of Brazil and the Caribbean. The map includes many coastal towns and cities on the African and Brazilian coast, African inland cities, as well as capes that were important to the ships navigating these waters. On the top left, the scale of the map is shown in German and Spanish measures. The maps also includes fauna found in the sea and on the African continent, with detailed depictions of a whale, elephants, rhino’s and snakes. The most fanciful depiction are the sirens and tritons that the author supposed lived in this lake east of Angola, which the author calls Lake Zaire and Lake Zembre. These lakes did not exist in this form, but were a common myth among European cartographers.

Interesting to note is also the depiction of the Atlantic islands St. Helena and Ascension. The former was a valuable place for ships seeking fresh supplies of food and water. Ascension was not as popular, but was sometimes visited by ships to hunt for meat.

The text in the center says: “depiction of the coasts of the lands of Guinea, Manicongo and Angola and so on until past the Cape of Good Hope with all harbors, islands, cliffs, droughts, shallows, along the entire breadth of the Atlantic Ocean which stretches from east to west up to Fernambuco and the Cape of Saint Augustine (lying on the coasts of Brazil); as well as all islands of the same and especially S. Thome, S. Helena, the island called Açemçaon, and more, with its true layout, all very correctly drawn and checked and improved from the best Indies maps."

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