Africa Tertia pars Terrae

Rare and early woodcut map of Africa by Heinrich Bunting. The map has an unusual shape, tapering to a narrow angle in the south. Several rivers appear in West Africa and as tributaries to the Nile. Mountain chains and various kingdoms are mentioned. The sea is engraved in narrow wavy lines, with a galleon, a merman and above him a sea-bird. Bunting's work Itinerarium Sacrae Scriptura was essentially a theological commentary with other maps of great curiosity. German text on verso.

Tears to bottom and upper centrefold backed. Traces of vertical folding flatted. Strong and clear impression.

Heinrich Bünting was a protestant Theologian and Chronicler. His main work Itinerarium sacrae scripturae first published 1581, was much valued, mainly because of its emblematic maps, which show the world arranged in the form of a clover leaf with Jerusalem at the centre, Europe in the form of a Queen and Asia in the form of Pegasus.