La Nuova et esatta Descrittione della Soria e della Terra Santa

Map of the Holy Land and the island of Cyprus, engraved and published by Paolo Forlani.

At the bottom right, in a cartouche, we find the title and editorial details: LA NUOVA ET ESATTA DESCRITTIONE DELLA SORIA, E DELLA TERRA SANTA. Da Paolo Furlani Veronese co[n] diligenza intagliata in Venetia l’Anno MDLXVI. Orientation with a rose of sixteen winds in the sea; the four main winds and the four half winds are indicated with the initial letter; the north is at the top. Map without graphic scale. Graduations in the margins, 10' in 10', from 31° to 37° of latitude and from 65° 3' to 75° of longitude.

The source of this cartographic map is definitely the board of Martin Waldseemuller of 1513, with all its branches in various successive editions of Ptolemy's Geographia. In 1561, in Venice, Giordano Ziletti published his Geographia, with commentary by Ruscelli and maps engraved by Giulio Sanuto. The map is an update of Forlani and enlargement of the latter, with respect to which two important elements are added such as decorative cartouche with the title and the wind rose, the sea.

The most unusual aspect of this work is the fact that there is a map variant, nearly identical in size and appearance, using a slab engraved differently and always in the same year by Paolo Forlani, 1566. The only difference, at first sight, is that our copy is dated in Roman numerals, and the other in Arabic numerals. A more in-depth notes that, instead of the copper is quite different and that there are also differences in the names, albeit minimal. David Woodward, the greatest scholar of Forlani, assigns both the Veronese is not impossible to assess what has been published before nor the mysterious reason that has led to record two plates Forlani. The presence of a second state of the other sheet, then edited by Donato Bertelli, lets me assume that our specimen is the first copperplate of Forlani, then destroyed for some reason, prompting the publisher to affect the subject again.

Paolo Forlani, a native of Verona, opened his own chalcographic workshop in Venice, Al segno del pozzo, in 1560, as reflected in some of his works. From 1566 he was active in Merzaria al segno della colonna and from 1569 in Merzaria al segno della nave. Forlani had business relationships with the major publishers of cartographic material of the time, among them Antonio Lafreri, the Bertelli family, and others. In addition to being a talented engraver, he was also quick to execute, a quality that enabled him to work for different publishers at the same time, and to execute a large amount of work. Woodward attributes about one hundred works to Forlani, most of which, however, are unsigned. Between 1560 and 1567, Forlani collaborated with Ferrando Bertelli, for whom he engraved about ten copperplates, with Camocio, Bolognino Zaltieri, and with Claudio Duchetti, for whom he engraved some maps. For his professional activity, however, the collaboration with Giacomo Gastaldi, for whom he engraved thirteen maps, was very important and valuable. In 1567 Forlani published and traded his work Il primo libro delle città et fortezze principali del mondo, whose branches later passed to Bolognino Zaltieri. It is likely that Forlani died during the plague that spread through Venice from 1575.

Etching with engraving, 1566, signed and dated on the plate in the cartouche. A magnific example, printed with rich tone on contemporary laid paper with watermark "mermaid in a circle with a star", with margins, in excellent conditions.

Bibliografia

Bifolco-Ronca, Cartografia e Topografia Italiana del XVI secolo, p. 604, tav. 190; Borroni Salvadori (1980): n. 133; Shirley (2004): I, n. 135; Tooley (1939): n. 436; Zacharakis (2009): n. 1536; Woodward (1990): n. 56; Woodward (1992): n. 39.