Dress of the Noblemen and Commonality of Kongo from de Bry
This engraving depicts two men wearing sandals, elaborate pants, hats and swords with a lion's head handle. The man on the left was in a robe and the man on the right is topless. They were apparently from the kingdom of Kongo in the Kwanza North region. Thomas Astley (d. 1759) was a British bookseller and publisher who never went to Africa. His imagined localities and illustrations of Africa were informed by a library of travel books at his disposal. Astley adapted this illustration from Johan Theodore De Bry (1561–1623) and Johan Israel De Bry (1565–1609), who were Flemish brothers, engravers and publishers. They never traveled to Africa and constructed their imagined illustrations from eyewitness accounts of Pieter de Marees of the Voltaic region in 1602 and Duarte Lopez of the Kongo kingdom in the Kwanza North region in 1578. For an extended discussion of the De Brys' imagined 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 (Basel: Schwabe, 2004), p. 95-149.
Image Title
Dress of the Noblemen and Commonality of Kongo from de Bry
RegID
SI-OB-830
Date
1745-1747
Title
Dress of the Noblemen and Commonality of Kongo from de Bry
Source
"Plate XV" in Thomas Astley (ed.), A New General Collection of Voyages and Travels, vol. 3 (London: Thomas Astley, 1745-1747), facing p. 248.
Language
English
Item sets
Pre-Colonial Africa: Society, Polity, Culture
Spatial Coverage
Africa--West Central North
Reproduced In
Derived from "Plate III" in Hans T. D Bry, and Hans I. D Bry, Orientalische Indien, vol. 1, Latin Edition (Frankfurt: Franckfurt am Main, 1598).
Researchers
Jerome Handler; Michael Tuite; Henry B. Lovejoy Graduate Research Assistants: Tiffany Beebe; Travis May
Last Updated
27-Jan-11; 26-Aug-19
Identifier
Astley022