Role Physician Name Olfert Dapper | Nationality Dutch Education Utrecht University | |
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Notable works Description of Africa (1668) Books Description of Africa People also search for Adam Jones, Silahdar Damat Ali Pasha, Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg | ||
Olfert Dapper (6 January 1636 – 29 December 1689) was a Dutch physician and writer. He wrote books about world history and geography, although he never travelled outside the Netherlands.
Contents
Biography
Olfert Dapper was born in early 1636 in the Jordaan in Amsterdam. On 6 January 1636, he was baptized in the Lutheran church in Amsterdam.
In 1663 wrote a book on the history of Amsterdam. His Description of Africa (1668) is a key text for African studies. His book "is one of the most authoritative 17th century accounts on Africa published in German. Translations appeared in English, French, and German. Dapper never traveled to Africa but used reports by Jesuit missionaries and other (Dutch) explorers. Within a few years he published about China, India, Persia, Georgia, and Arabia. His books became well known in his own time. The fine plates include views of Algiers, Benin, Cairo, Cape Town, La Valetta, Marrakech, St. Helena, Tangier, Tripoli, Tunis, as well as, animals and plants.
Dapper was buried on 29 December 1689 in Amsterdam.
Influence
To this day, Dapper's book Description of Africa is a key historical text on African history
In Amsterdam, the street Dapperstraat was named after him. The Dutch writer Willem Frederik Hermans wrote a book on him with the title Het Evangelie van O. Dapper Dapper (1973).
In Paris, the Musée Dapper was opened in 1986, named after Dapper. Peter S. Beagle dedicated The Last Unicorn to Dr. Dapper for his reports of unicorns in Maine. In 2012, Beagle wrote a fictional tale of Dapper's travels.