Horn of Africa – Hermanus Besseling, 1749

“Kaart van Ethiopië en Garamantie” copper engraving made by Hermanus Besseling for his “Algemeene Historie,” from the volume “containing the history of the Carthaginians, the Numidians, Mauritanians, Getulians, Nigritians, Garamantes, the Greeks, the regions inhabited by the Marmaridae, Cyrenaica and Syrtis, as well as of the Ethiopians and Arabs”, published in Utrecht in 1749. Coloured by a later hand. Size: 21.5 × 31 cm.

The map depicts the northeastern part of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula within an early modern, partly classically inspired geographical tradition. Central is the region that in the eighteenth century was understood under the collective name “Ethiopia”: a vast and only partially known interior, in which historical and ancient sources still play an important role. The inclusion of peoples such as the Garamantes (Berber peoples from Libya) and the Blemmyes (Eastern Desert people) directly refers to classical antiquity, illustrating how geographical knowledge and historiography remain closely intertwined.

Along the right-hand side runs the Red Sea, opposite which appears the “Part of Happy Arabia” (Arabia Felix, corresponding to present-day Saudi Arabia/Yemen). The coastlines and river systems are rendered with relative accuracy, while the interior remains largely schematic, filled with mountain ranges, tribal names, and toponyms derived from often imaginary or inherited sources.

The map forms part of an ambitious historical compendium in which geography functions not only as a spatial framework, but also as a structure for the description of peoples and civilizations. As such, it is a characteristic example of eighteenth-century scholarly cartography, in which empirical knowledge, classical tradition, and historical interpretation continue to coexist.

Price: Euro 125,-