Tertia Africae Tabula, created by Bernardus Sylvanus in 1511, presents a learned Renaissance vision of Egypt and the Red Sea framed within the classical canon. In this “Third Map of Africa,” Sylvanus stages an explicit dialogue between Strabo and Ptolemy, layering the settled wisdom of antiquity with the geographical revisions of his own age. The result is among the earliest obtainable cartographic portrayals of substantial portions of Africa, here focused on the Nile world and the Libyan littoral. Its rich topographical idiom—mountain chains patterned like repoussé metalwork, rivers drawn with sinuous clarity, borders and coasts crisply articulated—mirrors the intellectual ambition of the project: to reconcile text, terrain, and travel into a single, authoritative image.

Egypt commands the sheet, dominated by the coursing Nilus whose journey from the south resolves into the verdant delta that nourished pharaonic and Islamic capitals alike. Cairo and Alexandria appear as signal waypoints of learning and commerce, their positions triangulating the river’s breadth and the Mediterranean rim. Along the eastern margin the Mare Rubrum is named and closely attended with coastal toponyms, evoking the bustling sea-lanes that linked Egypt to Arabia. Across the surface, Latin annotations gloss mountains, towns, and waterways, repeatedly invoking Strabo’s testimony to weigh against Ptolemy’s coordinates. These scholia do more than label; they narrate floods, frontiers, and distances, turning the landscape into a text to be read as much as admired.

Westward the view swings along the Libyan shore, extending to Benghazi and the open sweep of the Gulf of Sirte, where capes and inlets are picked out with a sure cartographic hand. Inland, stylized mountain chains step across the blankness of the desert, a visual code for escarpments and highlands that hem the oases of Cyrenaica and the Eastern Sahara. Sylvanus balances physical and political geography: borders are inscribed to suggest spheres of authority, while the coastlines—tight, almost calligraphic—signal harbors and roadsteads essential to Mediterranean exchange. The juxtaposition of a spare interior with a richly articulated littoral underscores the perennial geography of North Africa: austere heartlands feeding into a necklace of maritime towns.

Bernardus Sylvanus—humanist, editor, and cartographer active in the cosmopolitan crucible of early-sixteenth-century Venice—crafted this map for his 1511 reimagining of Ptolemy’s Geography. He was among the first to print maps in two colors, a technical bravura that served a scholarly end: distinguishing layers of information and modernizing the ancient template without erasing it. In Tertia Africae Tabula he openly tests Ptolemaic placements against Strabo’s narratives, letting concord and contradiction guide revision. Sylvanus drew upon fresh nautical intelligence and empirical measurements then circulating through Venetian presses, yet he kept faith with the classical texts that structured Renaissance learning. The synthesis marked a turning point, ushering maps from inherited diagram toward observed description.

Elegance and erudition meet in the map’s design. A decorative cartouche crowns the composition, while the field below is animated by serried mountain motifs, the serpentine Nile, and the scalloped shores of the Red Sea and Mediterranean. Borders are drawn with purposeful restraint, allowing the Latin annotations—compact, literate, and often citing Strabo by name—to carry the intellectual argument across the terrain. The clarity of coastline and river, the cadence of place-names, and the poised geometry of the whole speak to Sylvanus’s refinement. As one of the earliest attainable portrayals of Africa in print to integrate antique authority with modern insight, this sheet offers a rare chance to read history directly from a landscape of ink.

Cities and towns on this map

• Cairo
• Alexandria
• Benghazi

Notable Features & Landmarks

• Numerous mountains depicted in a stylized manner
• The Nile River prominently illustrated
• The Red Sea with surrounding regions labeled
• Annotations in Latin concerning geographical features and locations
• A decorative cartouche at the top of the map
• Borders and coastal features outlined

Historical and design context

• Created by Bernardus Sylvanus in 1511
• Annotated with detailed references from Strabo; an early comparative analysis between Strabo and Ptolemy
• Noted for a rich topographical style and among the first maps printed in two colors
• Extensive hand annotations in a contemporary style
• Introduced modern geographical updates versus earlier depictions
• Considered one of the earliest obtainable maps showing significant portions of Africa
• Themes: political and physical geography of Egypt and surrounding regions, with annotations tied to ancient geography and historical context

Please double check the images to make sure that a specific town or place is shown on this map. You can also get in touch and ask us to check the map for you.

This map looks great at every size, but I always recommend going for a larger size if you have space. That way you can easily make out all of the details.

This map looks amazing at sizes all the way up to 90in (230cm). If you are looking for a larger map, please get in touch.

The model in the listing images is holding the 24x36in (60x90cm) version of this map.

The fifth listing image shows an example of my map personalisation service.

If you’re looking for something slightly different, check out my collection of the best old maps to see if something else catches your eye.

Please contact me to check if a certain location, landmark or feature is shown on this map.

This would make a wonderful birthday, Christmas, Father's Day, work leaving, anniversary or housewarming gift for someone from the areas covered by this map.

This map is available as a giclée print on acid free archival matte paper, or you can buy it framed. The frame is a nice, simple black frame that suits most aesthetics. Please get in touch if you'd like a different frame colour or material. My frames are glazed with super-clear museum-grade acrylic (perspex/acrylite), which is significantly less reflective than glass, safer, and will always arrive in perfect condition.

This map is also available as a float framed canvas, sometimes known as a shadow gap framed canvas or canvas floater. The map is printed on artist's cotton canvas and then stretched over a handmade box frame. We then "float" the canvas inside a wooden frame, which is available in a range of colours (black, dark brown, oak, antique gold and white). This is a wonderful way to present a map without glazing in front. See some examples of float framed canvas maps and explore the differences between my different finishes.

For something truly unique, this map is also available in "Unique 3D", our trademarked process that dramatically transforms the map so that it has a wonderful sense of depth. We combine the original map with detailed topography and elevation data, so that mountains and the terrain really "pop". For more info and examples of 3D maps, check my Unique 3D page.