The Three states of Mannevillette’s Chart of the Cape of Good Hope
2 July 2017Plan du Cap de Bonne Esperance et de ses Environs ... par Mr. de ****
Fig 1. Plan du Cap de Bonne Esperance (Published with permission of Geographicus Fine Antique Charts)
During the publication history of Plan du Cap, changes were made on the plate to the shape, toponymy and ocean depths of False Bay (Figure 2). All the three states of the copperplate were engraved and signed by Guillaume de la Haye.
Figure 2. False Bay in the 3 states of Plan du Cape de Bonne Esperance. 1st state left: 1754 – 1767, not in Neptune oriental (Author’s Collection); 2nd state centre: 1775, in Atlas du Neptune oriental (Published with permission of Geographicus Fine Antique Charts); 3rd state right: 1781, in Supplément au Neptune oriental (Published with permission of Stanford University). Figures may be viewed in high resolution here: 1st state; 2nd state; 3rd state
The scarce first state of the chart was published as a broadsheet and/or in a publication yet to be identified; the author of the chart is obscure. The date of publication was between 1754 and 1767: in 1754 Lacaille, who conducted the geometric survey, returned to Paris from Cape Town and Mauritius, and in 1767, William Herbert published a very similar English translation of the chart in his New Directory for the East-Indies.[i] The south-east coastline of False Bay is represented in this series of states by a prominent Hanglip error: it is about 7.3’ too far north. The toponomy is in Dutch and Steenberg Hoec is the only place named on the western shore of the bay.
The second state is the well known chart published in the 1775 edition of Mannevillete’s Atlas du Neptune oriental (Fig.1 and Tooley pt & pl 7)1. It is likely that Mannevillette directed De la Haye, the Parisian engraver, to make changes to the shape of the eastern coastline of False Bay. Hanglip, is still about 3’ too far north (It should be slightly south of Cape Point on the other side of False Bay; it also seems to be more eastward, as it should be at approximately 18̊ 49’E; ocean depths were added to the east coast of False Bay and the only change in toponymy of False Bay is to Hanglip, which, in the second state of the chart, is C False (written on the peninsula that forms the cape).
The scarce, third state of the chart (illustrated in Norwich #276)[ii], was published posthumously in 1781 in the Supplément au Neptune oriental.[iii] After Mannevillette’s death in 1780, Louis d’Après de Blangy, his half-bother, found amongst Mannevillette’s possessions a number of new and amended sea charts, which were published in 1781 as Supplément au Neptune oriental. The Dépôt de la Marine issued further editions of the Supplément that included more recent charts; in one extant edition of uncertain publication date, 9 of 12 charts were dated 1798 and, in another, the publication date was 1821.[iv], [v]
It is likely that Mannevillette directed further changes to the plate after publication of the second edition of Neptune Oriental. The major change in this third state is the eastward extension, beyond the right border of the chart, of the north-eastern bay within False Bay (then Visch Baay; today named Gordon’s Bay). The north-eastern corner of False Bay does indeed extend about 2’ east of Hanglip (Figure 2), but the change on the chart seems excessive; however, the absence of a longitude scale makes this judgment uncertain. Ocean depths are scattered throughout the bay, not just near the coastline. The other significant change is the dominantly French toponymy of False Bay, but not elsewhere on the chart, and the addition of new place names along the western and northern shores of False Bay (Baye de False on the chart); the island a short distance from the north shore is named only on this state of the chart. It is not clear whether Mannevillette or the Dépôt de la Marine oversaw the changes to the toponymy.
De Lacaille?
Most theories are built upon supportive evidence. It takes only one confirmed contrary fact to disprove the theory. It is one thing to displace Mannevillette as primary author of the sea chart Plan du Cap de Bonne Esperance et de ses Environs the challenge now is to find the author of the uncommon 1st state of this well know chart that is of historical importance in the charting of the Cape coast. Mannevillette and Lacaille twice were in the Cape together, determined the co-ordinates of Cape Town together and had high regard for each other. Could Lacaille have played a role in the sea chart Plan du Cap other than to be the mysterious Mr. de ****? After all, Lacaille was the author of the Hanglip error in his Carte du cap de Bonne Esperance:[vi] note the Hanglip error in Figure 3. Compare, too, the position of the south shore of Saldanha Bay on the West coast in Figures 1 and 3: too far south – by far. Lacaille introduced that error too. The evidence is mounting! Where will the research take us?
Figure 3. The Hanglip error in Lacaille’s map from his trigonometric survey at the Cape in 1752.
Roger Stewart
June 2017
[i] A Chart of the Cape of Good Hope and parts adjacent taken geometrically in the year 1752. In William Herbert. New Directory for the East-Indies ... London, W Herbert, 1767
[ii] J Stone (Ed). Norwich’s Maps of Africa. Norwich,Terra Nova Press, 1983
[iii] The chart, with 8 at the top right, is the 19th plate in Library of Congress’s copy of the 1781 edition of Supplément au Neptune Oriental (Paris, 1781). LC call number, G1781 .P5A6 1775 Suppl. The Supplément in the Library’s Rare Book and Special Collections Division does not have the chart (Call No VK701. A66).
[iv] http://orbexpress.library.yale.edu/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=589597
[v] http://www.worldcat.org/title/supplement-au-neptune-oriental/oclc/560874298&referer=brief_results
[vi] Histoire de l'Académie Royales des Sciences| Année M. DCCLI (1751) | Avec les Mmoires de Mathématique & de Physique, pour la meme Année. | Tirés des Registres de cette Académie. (Paris: De l'Imprimerie Royale, 1755), 398-456 (yes, the article was published in 1755, but in the 1751 edition of the Mémoires - before Lacaille conducted the geometric study)
