A modern reproduction print of a map from Odoardo Lopez's Relatione del Reame di Congo published by Fiippo Pigafetta (specifically from the British Museum) that was reprinted by Edward Standford in the 19th century.
Pigafetta's printed edition of Lopes' (or Lopez's) manuscript undid all the major Ptolemaic precepts regarding the geography of central Africa. It reflects the only new and different model available to Renaissance cartographers for the depiction of the unknown interior of the continent. The depiction of the origin of the Nile is an important landmark in the historical cartography of the Nile water basin, completely changing the traditional Ptolemaic concept by placing it above the Equator for the first time. Lopez and Pigafetta's rejection of the Ptolemaic tradition was part of the sixteenth-century trend in increasing skepticism towards Ptolemaic precepts. The map was originally dedicated to Antonio Miglioni Vescovo S. Marco., Rome.
