ROYAUMES ETATS ET PAYS DE LA HAUTE GUINEE
Title: Le Royaume d’Adel: les cotes d’Ajan et de Zanguebar avec les Etats qu’elles comprennent
Atlas: Atlas encyclopedique contenant le geographie ancienne ey quelque cartees sur la geographie du moyen age, Paris, Hotel de Thou 1787
Technique: Copper engraving
Sheet size: 16.1x12 in; 41x30,5 cm
Plate area: 14.4x9.8 in; 36,5x25.
Overall condition: Excellent condition, with light foxing. Horizontal folding.
Map by Rigobert Bonne featuring the coasts of the Reign of Ajan and Zanguebar (modern-day coasts of Yemen, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Comoros, Mozambique).
Bonne was an influential french cartographer of the late 18th century, was a skilled cartographer and hydrographer and succeded Jacques Nicolas Bellin as Royal Hydrographer at the Depote la Marine in 1773.
Bonne is also important for the history of cartography because of the larger trends exemplified by his work. In Bonne’s maps, it is possible to see the decisive shift from the elaborate decorations of the seventeenth century and the less ornate, yet still prominent embellishments of the early to mid-eighteenth century. By contrast, Bonne’s work was simple, unadorned, and practical. This aesthetic shift, and the detail and precision of his geography, make Bonne an important figure in mapping history.
