Richard Betz, in his book “The Mapping of Africa: A Cartobibliography of Printed Maps of the African Continent to 1700,” identifies six major models of antiquarian maps of Africa. Each model speaks to maps produced during certain periods with maps produced in each period having significant attributes. These constructs often begin with a map that defines a model and that is followed by several others that share attributes from that map, or are derived from that defining map. For example, Giacomo Gastaldi produced in 1564 an eight sheet map that had many imitators. According to Betz, Abraham Ortelius used this map for his map of Africa in 1570. These maps and several others follow the “Gastaldi-Ortelius archetype.” Other models explained by Betz include the Mercator Model, the Blaeu Model, Sanson 1650 Model, Jaillot - Duval Model and the Delisle Model of 1700. Major attributes of this model include more detailed place names in part of Africa that were under French influence, more precision around the location of the Volta River and the absence of conjectural placenames.

While Stanford’s Maps of Africa Collection has examples that belong to many of these models, this digital exhibition showcases four maps from the Sanson 1650 model period to highlight some of the major elements of this model and of Sanson’s work. Our scanned collection has a total of seven maps belong to this model. All of the maps depicted below are authored by Nicolas Sanson and are part of the Maps of Africa collection.