Le grand Roy Mono-Motapa shows the portrait of emperor Mavura Mhande Felipe, who reigned the great Mwene Mutapa empire from 1629 to 1652. His conversion to Christianity enabled the Portuguese to extend their commercial influence into the African interior from their trading base in Mozambique on the East African coast. The French caption below the portrait mentions the emperor’s baptism in 1631 and gives a brief account of the size and wealth of his Kingdom, which covered modern-day Rhodesia, Kalahara, Mozambique, and part of South Africa.

Although the engraving is part of a large series of over 240 prints, only four other copies of Le grand Roy Mono-Motapa
are known, one at the BNF, the British Museum, the Royal Collection Trust, and the New York Public Library. The IFF (Larmessin, cat.no. 65-127) records a bound volume of 240 plates in the Cabinet des Estampes (N a 12), adding that the volume originally contained over 249 prints.

Other copies of the engraving are in the Walters Art Museum and in the British Museum, London.