77/ 881 [Africa]. Dapper, O. Naukeurige Beschrijvinge der Afrikaensche Gewesten van Egypten, Barbaryen, Libyen, Biledulgerid, Negroslant, Guinea, Ethiopiën, Abyssinie: vertoont in de Benamingen, Grenspalen, Steden, Revieren, Gewassen, Dieren, Zeeden, Drachten, Talen, Rijkdommen, Godsdiensten en Heerschappyen. Naukeurige Beschrijvinge der Afrikaensche Eylanden: als Madagaskar, of Sant Laurens, Sant Thomee, d'eilanden van Kanarien, Kaep de Verd, Malta, en andere. Amst., J. van Meurs, 1668, 2 parts in 1 vol., (6),728,(18); (2),120[=128],(4)p., engr. frontisp., title-vignette, 12 (of 14 double-p./ fold.) maps, 31 (of 32) double-p. plates, large number of half-p. ills., contemp. vellum, folio.

- Lacks 2 maps (incl. the general map) and 1 double-p. plate; map of Guinea and plate of Benin dam. (both lack 1/3 of image); frontisp. dam.; lower blank half of final preliminary leaf cut off; 3 textleaves badly dam.; second part lacks final 2 unnumb. (index?) leaves; part of lower blank margin of view of Tripoli cut off; 1 plate w. closed tear; final 10 leaves of 2nd part waterstained (not affecting the plates); otherwise many leaves fingersoiled and/ or water-/ duststained/ foxed in (mainly blank) margins; lacks free endpapers and htitle. Vellum soiled.

= The rare first edition. Tiele 296/ 297; Paulitschke 190. Cat. NHSM, Mendelssohn, Kainbacher, Gay all later editions and translations. The first large general description of the African continent. The work is based on the early accounts of the Portuguese and Spanish explorers, the English works by Purchass and Jarrick, the journals and descriptions of Dutch navigators like Van Noort, Van Neck, Linschoten, Spilbergen, but especially on unpublished reports and eye-witness accounts of Dutch merchants, visitors and soldiers. Very detailed on the West Coast, where the Dutch ivory-, gold- and slave-trade flourished and on Angola (Luanda was captured by a WIC fleet in 1647). On the settlement on the Cape only a cursory note is found, while the surrounding tribes are described with remarkable detail. The second part, devoted to the African islands, from Malta to Madagascar, includes an ample account of the French colonization of the latter. The work is famous for its splendid detailed maps and plates, i.a. engraved after drawings by Reinier Noomsz (Zeeman). SEE ILLUSTRATION PLATE XXV.