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Mbanza Kongo (São Salvador)Engraving from O[lfert] Dapper, Naukeurige Beschrijvinge (Amsterdam), pp. 562–63

Author Olfert Dapper Dutch
 Publisher Jacob van Meurs Dutch

Not on view

Based in Amsterdam, the scholar-geographer Olfert Dapper compiled accounts and trade reports from agents of the Dutch West Indies Company. Under the Kongo king Garcia II (r. 1641–60), an alliance was cemented with the Dutch in which they jointly sought to expel the Portuguese from Luanda and the hinterland. Given the accuracy of the topographical views in Dapper’s publication, an artist may have accompanied the Dutch embassy to the Kongo capital, São Salvador, that settled that agreement. In this view of the city seen from the valley, Garcia’s two-story residency sits at the summit of the mountain.

Mbanza Kongo (São Salvador) Engraving from O[lfert] Dapper, Naukeurige Beschrijvinge (Amsterdam), pp. 562–63, Olfert Dapper (Dutch, 1635–1689), printed paper with 20th century cloth binding, Dutch

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