L’Italia nobilissima provincia della Europa...

In the bottom center, within a beautiful decorative scroll, the title and a long geographical description: L'Italia nobilissima provincia della Europa fu nominata con diversi nomi, cioè Saturnia, Ausonia, Enotria, Esperia, et Italia. In the cartouche in the lower left-hand corner is the dedication: All'Ill.mo Sig.re mio p[ad]rone Col.mo il S.re Francesco Morosino Deg.mo Podesta di Trevigi… . In Venetia il dì p.o de Decembre 1599. Di V.S.ia Ill.ma Humilissimo Servitore Donato Rascioti.  Above the cartouche is depicted Neptune holding in his hand the Scale of the miles (50 miles = mm 32). Orientation provided by a wind rose in the Ionian Sea; north is at the top. Graduation at the margins from degree to degree, from 37° 15' to 45° 50' of latitude and from 27° 37' to 44° 10' of longitude.

The map, engraved by Giovanni Battista Mazza for the publisher Donato Rascicotti, appears to be a faithful copy of the work of Domenico Zenoi in 1567, compared to which it does not present major changes except in the cartouches. Even this work, therefore, is based on the map of Giacomo Gastaldi to which are added several decorative elements in the sea. The format is reduced, the hydrography and the towns remain faithful to the original, while some changes are made in the graduation and greater attention is given to the orography, represented by isolated "mole piles" with oronym, a characteristic design of the first Renaissance maps. It is dedicated to Francesco Morosini, podestà of Treviso.

Its editorial peculiarity is to be printed with blue or gray ink and not black, which produces an unusual chromatic effect in the sea.

Giovanni Battista Mazza was an engraver and printer active in Venice in the last years of the 1500s. With his elegant and precise mark, he engraved several charts, later marketed by Donato Rasciotti, and also a large planisphere by Giuseppe Rosaccio, dated 1597, in which he signed Giovan Battista Mazza venetiano Maestro delle stampe della Zecha de Venetia. Donato Rascicotti was a publisher, merchant and printer. Of Brescian origin but active in Venice, and perhaps also in Bologna and Rome. Sometimes is indicated as Rasciotti and Rosigotti. According to some, he should be identified with Donato Resegato "printer of drawings", arrested in Rome in 1577 on the charge of having stolen drawings from the workshop of Lafreri. In Venice his workshop was at Ponte dei Barettieri. 

Etching and engraving, printed on coeval laid paper, trimmed at the copper and with added margins, minimal restorations perfectly executed - in particular at the lower right corner - for the rest in excellent condition. Applied on antique paper support.

Example in the first state of two, before the address of Stefano Mozzi Scolari. The second state of the plate has the date changed to MDCLXIIII and the signature In Venetia Appresso Steffano Scolari forma a S. Zulian. (cf. Bifolco-Ronca, p. 1848).

RARE work. There are only 4 copies of the paper preserved in the main public collections: Chicago, Newberry Library; Florence, Biblioteca Comunale; Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale; Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (cf. Bifolco-Ronca, p. 1848). We are aware of two more, in as many private Italian collections.

Bibliografia

Bifolco-Ronca, Cartografia e topografia italiana del XVI secolo, tav. 927, I/II; Almagià (1948): p. 32; Almagià (1929): p. 27, I; Bifolco-Ronca (2014): n. 18; Borri (1999): p. 63, n. 65; Borri (2010): pp. 79-80, n. 64, fig. 83; Frutaz (1972): vol II, tav. 50; Karrow (1993): n. 30/90.8; Perini (1996): p. 32; Tooley (1983): nn. 335b & 338a.