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Description : |
This finely engraved
beautifully hand coloured original antique map of Italy
was engraved by Henricus Hondius in 1631 - dated bottom
left cartouche - and was published in the 1639 French
edition of Mercator's atlas by Jansson and
Hondius.
This map is richly embellished with cartouches, sailing
vessels, sea monsters and a wonderful rendering of
Neptune and his mate. The image of the two mer-people
embracing with bare chests is a hold over from the
controversial images present in the first edition of
Ortelius' modern map of Italy. Includes portraits of
Romulus and Remus in the lower right corner. In
subsequent years, Jansson would replace Hondius's name
with his own in the bottom left corner.
These maps, published in the later editions of
Mercators atlas, are derived from the original maps
drawn and engraved by Gerald Mercator in the mid to late
16th century, published by his son Rumold as an atlas,
after his death, in 1595.
After two editions the plates were purchased by
Jodocus Hondius in 1604 and
continued to be
published until the mid 1630's when the plates were
re-engraved and updated by Jan Jansson and Henricus
Hondius.
Background:
Since classical times the countries bordering the
enclosed waters of the Mediterranean had been well
versed in the use of maps and sea charts and in Italy,
more than anywhere else, the traditional knowledge was
kept alive during the many hundreds of years following
the collapse of the Roman Empire. By the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries the seamen of Venice, Genoa and
Amalfi traded to far countries, from the Black Sea ports
and the coasts of Palestine and Egypt in the East to
Flanders and the southern coasts of England and Ireland
in the West, their voyages guided by portulan charts and
the use of the newly invented compass. For a time
Italian supremacy in cartography passed to Aragon and
the Catalan map makers based on Majorca, but by the year
1400 the power and wealth of the city states of Venice,
Genoa, Florence and Milan surpassed any in Europe.
Florence, especially, under the rule of the Medici
family, became not only a great trading and financial
centre but also the focal point of the rediscovery of
the arts and learning of the ancient world. In this
milieu a number of manuscript world maps were produced,
of which one by Fra Mauro (c. 1459) is the most notable,
but the event of the greatest importance in the history
of cartography occurred in the year 1400 when a
Florentine, Palla Strozzi, brought from Constantinople a
Greek manuscript copy of Claudius Ptolemy's
Geographia, which, 1,250 years after its
compilation, came as a revelation to scholars in Western
Europe. In the following fifty years or so manuscript
copies, translated into Latin and other languages,
became available in limited numbers but the invention of
movable-type printing transformed the scene: the first
copy without maps being printed in 1475 followed by many
with copper-engraved maps, at Bologna in 1477, Rome
1478, 1490, 1507 and 1508, and Florence 1482.
About the year 1485 the first book of sea charts,
compiled by Bartolommeo dalli Sonetti, was printed in
Venice and in the first part of the sixteenth century a
number of world maps were published, among them one
compiled in 1506 by Giovanni Contarini, engraved by
Francesco Rosselli, which was the first printed map to
show the discoveries in the New World. In the following
years there were many attractive and unusual maps of
Islands (Isolano) by Bordone, Camocio and Porcacchi, but
more important was the work of Giacomo (Jacopo) Gastaldi,
a native of Piedmont who started life as an engineer in
the service of the Venetian Republic before turning to
cartography as a profession. His maps, produced in great
variety and quantity, were beautifully drawn copperplate
engravings and his style and techniques were widely
copied by his contemporaries. From about 1550 to 1580
many of Gastaldi's maps appeared in the collections of
maps known as Lafreri 'atlases', a term applied to
groups of maps by different cartographers brought
together in one binding. As the contents of such
collections varied considerably they were no doubt
assembled at the special request of wealthy patrons and
are now very rare indeed.
About this time, for a variety of historical and
commercial reasons, Italy's position as the leading
trading and financial nation rapidly declined and with
it her superiority in cartography was lost to the
vigorous new states in the Low Countries. That is not to
say, of course, that Italian skills as map makers were
lost entirely for it was not until 1620 that the first
printed maps of Italy by an Italian, Giovanni Magini,
appeared, and much later in the century there were fine
maps by Giacomo de Rossi and Vincenzo Coronelli, the
latter leading a revival of interest in cartography at
the end of the century. Coronelli was also famous for
the construction of magnificent large-size globes and
for the foundation in Venice in 1680 of the first
geographical society.
In the eighteenth century the best-known names are
Antonio Zatta, Rizzi-Zannoni and Giovanni Cassini.
We ought to mention the work of Baptista Boazio who drew
a series of maps in A Summarie and True Discourse of
Sir Francis Drake's West Indian Voyage, published in
1588-89, and who is especially noted for a very fine map
of Ireland printed in 1599 which was incorporated in the
later editions of the Ortelius atlases. It is perhaps
appropriate also to refer to two English map makers who
spent many years in exile in Italy: the first, George
Lily, famous for the splendid map of the British Isles
issued in Rome in 1546, and the second, Robert Dudley,
who exactly one hundred years later was responsible for
the finest sea atlas of the day, Dell' Arcano del
Mare, published in Florence. Both of these are
described in greater detail elsewhere in this handbook.
(Ref: Tooley, Koeman)
General Description:
Paper thickness and
quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color: - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Green, red, orange, yellow, blue
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 22in x 18 1/2in (560mm x 470mm)
Plate size: - 19 1/2in x 15in (500mm x 370mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - Light creasing along centerfold
Verso: - Bottom centerfold rejoined, no loss
If you wish to discuss this or any other item
please email or call - good luck, Simon.
Classical Images
61 (0) 409 551910 Tel
simon@classicalimages.com
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