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GOOS, Pieter : Pas-Kaarte van de Zuyd-west-Kust van Africa; van Cabo Negro tot Beoosten Cabo de Bona Esperanca

295 x 530 mm., recent outline colour, small lower centrefold split, repaired, well away from the image as there are very large margins top and bottom, otherwise in good condition.

A rare early sea chart of the south western coastline of Africa extending from the Cape of Good Hope to Cabo Negro at 16 degrees south of the equator. This beautifully engraved chart displays critical waters in the Dutch East India Companies trade with the East Indies where all its vessels had to pass through. The map is derived from one by Jodocus Hondius which appears in a very rare pamphlet published in 1652. It described South Africa when Jan Van Riebeeck (1619-77) landed in Table Bay. Norwich described the chart as a “fine, decisive copperplate engraved map with a great deal of detail of the coastline”. There are two insets of which the smaller depicts Vlees Bay to the east of the Cape. The larger provides a detailed map and chart of the Cape of Good Hope including Table Mountain. Two ships adorn the sea with a compass rose orientating the map with north to the left. It was published in the ‘Zee-Atlas’ one of the finest Dutch sea atlases of the time. Goos’ marine charts were held in high esteem in the seventeenth century. Koeman (1967-70) IV Goos 1B no. 24; Norwich (1983) 243.

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