145 - The Western Part of the Old Continent, from Lisbon to the River of Sierra Leone: Including the Island of Madeira, the Canary Islands, and the Islands of the Verde.

The Western Part of the Old Continent, from Lisbon to the River of Sierra Leone: Including the Island of Madeira, the Canary Islands, and the Islands of the Verde. Paris, 1780 Detailed map of the northern and western coasts of Africa, from Biafra and Sierra Leone (Kingdom of Mandinga) to Gibraltar and Fez, also including Madeira, the Canary Islands, and the Cape Verde Islands. This area corresponds to present-day Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania, and Algeria. Includes the Canary Islands, the island of Madeira, and the Cape Verde Islands. It provides minimal detail inland due to the scarcity of knowledge about the continent’s interior at the time. The exception is the Senegal and Gambia river valleys extending inland from Cape Verde, which at the time had just been mapped by explorers and missionaries. Arrows and hatching indicate some ocean currents and winds. Rigobert Bonne (1727–1794) was an influential French cartographer of the late 18th century. A native of Lorraine, he moved to Paris to study cartography. He succeeded Jacques Nicolas Bellin as Hydrographer to the King at the Dépôt de la Marine in 1773, where he published numerous maps, including some for the *Atlas Maritime* (1762). He is best known for his maps in the *Atlas Encyclopédique* (1788), produced in collaboration with Nicolas Desmarest, and for those in Abbé Raynal’s *Atlas of All Known Parts of the Globe* (1780). Beyond his works, Bonne marked a turning point in the history of cartography: his precise and unadorned maps broke with the decorative embellishments of previous centuries. His sober and functional style illustrates the shift toward a more scientific and utilitarian approach to cartography. H: 34 x W: 22 cm