Dress of the Women from De Bry
This engraving depicts three women wearing romanesque clothing with jewelry and sandals from the kingdom of Kongo in the Kwanza North region. The descriptions of these women, from right to left, "the better sort, middle sort, vulgar and slaves." 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 Women from De Bry
RegID
SI-OB-831
Date
1745-1747
Title
Dress of the Women from De Bry
Source
"Plate XIV" in Thomas Astley (ed.), A New General Collection of Voyages and Travels, vol. 3 (London: Thomas Astley, 1745-1747), between p. 248 and 249.
Language
English
Item sets
Pre-Colonial Africa: Society, Polity, Culture
Spatial Coverage
Africa--West Central North
Reproduced In
Derived from "Plate V" in Hans T. D Bry, and Hans I. D Bry, Orientalische Indien, vol. 1 (Frankfurt: Franckfurt am Main, 1597).
Researchers
Jerome Handler; Michael Tuite; Henry B. Lovejoy Graduate Research Assistants: Tiffany Beebe; Travis May
Last Updated
27-Jan-11; 26-Aug-19
Identifier
Astley023