UMBSTÄNDLICHE UND EIGENTLICHE BESCHREIBUNG VON AFRICA (PUBLI...

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R40,000 - R50,000

UMBSTÄNDLICHE UND EIGENTLICHE BESCHREIBUNG VON AFRICA (PUBLISHED 1670-1671) by Olfert Dapper

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Subtitle: und denen darzu gehörigen Königreichen und Landschaften, als Egypten, Barbarien, Libyen, Biledulgerid, dem Lande der Negros, Guinea, Ethiopien, Abyssina, und den Africanischen Insulen With: Eigentliche Beschreibung der Insulen in Afrika: als da seynd Madagaskar, oder die Lorenz-Insel, die Thomas-Insel, die Kanarischen-Inseln, die Inseln des Grühnen Vorgebürges, Malta, und andere...

Amsterdam: Bey Jacob von Meurs, 1670-1671

Large 4to, Part 1: v + 695pp. + 12pp. Index, Part 2: 101pp + 3pp. Index. Rebound in light brown half-leather hardcover binding, marbled boards, 5 raised bands, light brown lettering to spine, and light brown endpapers and pastedowns. Red and black lettering to first part’s title page. Fraktur text in double columns. Decorative woodcut initials and tail-pieces. With 34 double-page plates and fold-out maps in part 1, and 9 in part 2. Decorative full-page copperplate-engraved title page to part 1. 49 copper engravings in part 1, and 5 in part 2. Pages have been collated, and pp. 377-378 in part one is missing, although this appears to be a printer’s error, as the text still flows unbroken from p. 376 to facing p. 379. This has also been noted in other copies. All others present, with a few small printer’s errors in pagination.

First edition in German of Olfert Dapper's "Description of Africa" (first published in Dutch in Amsterdam in 1668 as Naukeurige beschryvinge der Africaenische gewesten Egypten, Barbaryen, and Naukeurige beschrijvinge der Africaenische eylanden). Two parts in one volume.

From the collection of N. J. van Warmelo, linguist and former State Ethnologist.


Olfert Dapper (1636 – 1689) was a Dutch physician and writer who wrote books about world history and geography although he never travelled outside the Netherlands. In 1663 wrote a book on the history of Amsterdam. His Description of Africa (1668) is a key text for African studies. His book "is one of the most authoritative 17th-century accounts on Africa published in Dutch. Translations appeared in English, French, and German. Dapper never travelled outside the Netherlands but used reports by Jesuit missionaries and Dutch explorers. Within a few years, he published about China, India, Persia, Georgia and Arabia. His books became well-known in his own time. The fine plates include views of Algiers, Benin, Cairo, Cape Town, Valletta, Marrakesh, St. Helena, Tangier, Tripoli and Tunis, as well as animals and plants. To this day, Dapper's book Description of Africa is an important text for Africanists. (Wikipedia.com)