Rare and imaginative map of Central Africa centred on the Kingdom
of the Abyssinia, believed at the time to be the location of the mythical
empire of Prester John.

The map extends from Egypt in the north to the unexplored
southern reaches of the continent, and from the Isle of Príncipe in the
Atlantic to Socotra in the Indian Ocean.

In the lower left, a key displays the map's unit of measurement - Germanic milestones - ornamented with a child holding a calliper. The lower right holds a title
cartouche richly decorated with figures in African dress, flanked
by two children bearing parasols and surmounted by a radiant anthropomorphic
sun.

Pictorial details include pairs of elephants in the east, ostriches in the
Nubian south, and two mythological lakes, Zaire and Zaflan, shown as the Nile’s
sources. Lake Zaire is annotated with references to tritons, sirens, and
Amazons. The southernmost regions feature the legendary Mountains of the
Moon. The Arabian Peninsula is only partially charted, with Aden and Mecca
noted—the latter described as the “homeland of Mohammed.” In the center of the
map, the mythical Mount Amara is noted as being the site of imprisonment of
Prester John’s sons and successor. Various kingdoms in Africa are titled and delineated with colour, such as Nubia, Biafara, and Guangara.

Prester John first appears in the Chronicon of Otto
of Freising (ca. 1145) as a mighty Christian emperor ruling beyond the Islamic
world, possibly a descendant of the Magi. Medieval and early Renaissance
Europeans variously placed his kingdom in Asia, among Nestorian Christians, and
later in Ethiopia. The association with the Ethiopian Empire was reinforced in
the 16th century, when the Portuguese envoy Francisco Alvares visited the
Christian ruler David II, who was believed by some to be Prester John’s successor. The
legend of Prester John inspired European hopes for an African or Eastern
Christian ally against Islamic powers and fuelled geographic exploration.