The decoration of the cartouche in this map is related not to
some very angular pyramids, which recall the Renaissance designs by
Prester John but to African ethnography. It is surrounded by black
Maerten van Heemskerck, engraved by Philips Galle and published
figures, both female and male, and some nude children. Two of them,
by Theodoor Galle in 1572 (and copied by Willem Janszoon Blaeu
seated on the pediment from which a cloth with the title hangs, carry
in his Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Geographica ac Hydrographica
parasols as a protection from the scorching African sun—the same
Tabula [Amsterdam, 1635; plate 27]). This and other details, such
parasol that topped the head of Africa in Jan Baptista Vrients’s Orbis
as the bare breast of the sphinx and the necklace around her neck,
Terrae Compendiosa Descriptio (plate 15), and covered her body in
as well as some hieroglyphs in the pedestal—namely the naturalistic
Petrus Plancius’s Orbis Terrarum Typus De Integro Multis In Locis
palm tree and the crocodile (which recalls the animal ridden by the
Emendatus. Moreover, the classical putto which in many maps plays
allegory of this continent; plate 15)—keep this representation from
with a divider in the scale cartouche has been transformed in Blaeu’s
being a true copy of the ancient Egypt art history. However, the map
map into another black child.
creators should be considered prescient for foreseeing the popularity
It is interesting to note how the style of the decoration of
of Egyptology that was to come after Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt
cartouches evolved parallel to artistic development, and how their
in the very late eighteenth century.
subjects varied depending on the nature of the map. Another regional
During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, apart from
map of Africa, the Carte de l’Egypte Ancienne et Moderne by Gilles
the interest in ancient ruins, especially those in Rome after the
Robert de Vaugondy and engraved by Elisabeth Haussard, shows
influence of the designs of authors such as Giovanni Battista Piranesi
a very different image of Africa, this time related to her ancient
(1720–1778), another subject that stood out in cartouche decoration
history echoed in the title (plate 37). The map was inserted in the
was the depiction of conflicts among countries. One of the most
Atlas Universel, first published in Paris in 1757 by de Vaugondy and
spectacular images in this regard is the Theatre de la Guerre en
his son, Didier Robert de Vaugondy, along with Antoine Boudet,
Espagne et en Portugal by Johannes Covens and Cornelis Mortier,
and was later reissued by Charles François Delamarche. Far from
inserted in the Nieuwe atlas … (Amsterdam: Covens & Mortier,
copying a myth, the title cartouche in this map approaches the ruins
ca. 1740), that illustrates the title cartouche with an image of the
of Pharaonic Egypt. The title text is carved on a broken stone slab
War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714), fought between two
lying on a palm tree and a sphinx. A tumbled obelisk and a classical
alliances of European powers, including a divided Spain, over the
colonnade with a broken entablature reinforce the decadent aspect
ascent to the Spanish throne after the death of Charles II of Spain
of these makeshift archaeological remains. The background features
(plate 38). The title of the map is written on a big rock, crowned
32