Repraesentatio vestimentorum, Quibus viri in hoc littore utuntur
"A Representation of the Clothing, Used by Men at the Coast" (caption translation). Likely depicts the Voltaic region. In the foreground, from right to left, a typical gentleman wearing a hat and linen clothing; a merchant (batafou), with a dog skin hat and a rolled up cloth around his waist; an interpreter who accompanies farmers trading with [European] ships, wearing a small hat. The background portrays merchants after trading with German or Dutch ships; slaves carry the merchants' wares. For this image in particular, see pp. 119, 121, 124-25. The De Brys had never visited Africa and constructed their illustrations of Africans from late sixteenth century eye-witness accounts by the Dutchman Pieter de Marees of the Gold Coast in the Voltaic region, and by the Portuguese Duarte Lopez of the kingdom of Kongo in the Kwanza North region. For an extended discussion of the De Brys' illustrations of Africa and their sources, see Ernst van den Boogaart, De Brys' Africa, in Susanna Burghartz, ed., Inszenierte Welten: Die west-und ostindischen reisen der verleger de Bry, 1590-1630 [Staging New Worlds: De Brys' Illustrated Travel Reports, 1590-1630] (Basel, 2004), pp. 95-149.
Image Title
Repraesentatio vestimentorum, Quibus viri in hoc littore utuntur
RegID
SI-OB-1014
Date
Late 1500s
Title
Repraesentatio vestimentorum, Quibus viri in hoc littore utuntur
Source
Theodore and Johan Israel De Bry, Indiae Orientalis pars VI [India Orientalis. pt. 6], (Frankfort, 1604), plate 3. Copy in Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library.
Language
Latin
Item sets
Pre-Colonial Africa: Society, Polity, Culture
Spatial Coverage
Africa--Voltaic
Reproduced In
Theodore and Johan Israel De Bry, Indiae Orientalis pars VI [India Orientalis. pt. 6], (Frankfort, 1604), plate 3.
Researchers
Jerome Handler; Michael Tuite; Henry B. Lovejoy Graduate Research Assistants: Tiffany Beebe; Travis May
Identifier
BRY02