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Description

Rare separately issued map of Africa, published by esteemed Spanish mapmaker Tomas Lopez.

The map is noteworthy for its relatively restrained use of cartographic detail, combined with an incredible number of notes - virtually every free section of the grid includes at least one geographical or historical note.

Rarity

The 1790 Lopez map of Africa is of the utmost rarity. 

We locate 4 copies of the 1771 state of the map (Spanish National Library, BnF, Harvard and Stanford), 1 copyof the 1790 state (University of British Columbia) and 1 undated example (Archivo Cartográfico de Estudios Geográficos del Centro Geográfico del Ejército).

We were unable to locate any examples of the map at auction, other than the present example (Old World 2022)

Condition Description
Removed from linen backing.
Tomás López Biography

Tomás López de Vargas Machuca (1730-1802) was one of Spain’s most prominent cartographers in the eighteenth century. He was born in Toledo but studied at the Colegio Imperial in Madrid, where he focused on mathematics, grammar, and rhetoric. Along with a small group of colleagues, in 1752 the Spanish government sent López for training in Paris with the renowned geographer Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d’Anville. When he returned to Spain he was named Geógrafo de los dominios de Su Magestad and put in charge of the geographic collections of Charles III. He published many maps, including his fascinating maps of the Americas, and a variety of geography manuals. Some of his most famous maps are of the Iberian Peninsula, part of his large project to create a majestic atlas of Spain. Unfinished in his lifetime, López's children published the Atlas Geográfico de España (Geographical Atlas of Spain) in 1804. It was republished in 1810 and 1830.