Paese di Roma

Etching and engraving, 1556, lacking publishing details.

Example in the very rare first state of five described in Cartografia e topografia italiana del XVI secolo, before the depiction of 5 fortresses erected at the mouth of the Tiber for the Guerra del Sale (1557).

Top center, in a simple box, the title: Paese di Roma. Lower right, the coat of arms of Pope Paolo IV (Gian Pietro Carafa 1476-1559, elected pope from May 26, 1555), featuring the papal symbols of crossed keys with tiara. Lower down is the inscription Cum privilegio and the date 1556. To the left of the coat of arms, a compass highlights the five-mile graphic scale of mm 28.

Anonymous map of Latium ascribed to Vincenzo Luchini. It represents the first of several derivations of the map by Eufrosino della Volpaia (1547), compared to which, although smaller in size, it shows a much larger territory. The work was a considerable success and was reprinted several times, until 1647, updating the papal coat of arms from time to time.

This first state of the plate is of incredible rarity. Only 3 other examples are known, preserved in the collection of the Studienbibliothek in Dillingen, at the British Library and at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.

The map by Eufrosino Della Volpaia, can be considered the only original work, for the 16th century, of the Roman Campagna and was taken as a model for numerous maps of Latium. It reveals very close similarities in content with what is reported in Domenico Bocca Maza's Otto libri quali narreno de varii et diverse cose apertinenti alli Cacciatori, printed in Rome in 1548. Almagià states: “Essa può definirsi una carta topografica, e tale è anche per la copia di particolari di ogni genere e per l’esattezza del disegno delle località, le cui figurazioni prospettiche corrispondono all’aspetto reale, quale è in molti casi ancora riconoscibile, e dimostrano una perfetta conoscenza personale della Regione. Altre figurazioni di vario genere, alcune delle quali singolarissime, porgono una viva immagine della Campagna Romana in quel tempo”.

Magnificent proof, richly toned, printed on contemporary laid paper without watermark, with thin margins, in excellent condition. Applied on contemporary paper; probably belonged to a 16th-century composite atlas; at upper right, coeval inscription in French Pays ou dependance de Rome.

Bibliografia

S. Bifolco – F. Ronca, Cartografia e topografia italiana del XVI secolo, (2018) pp. 2022-2023, tav. 1021, I/V; Almagia (1929): p. 21, A & F; Almagia (1948): p. 92, n. 20; Almagia (1960): p. 11; Arrigoni-Bertarelli (1930): n. 2114; Ashby (1914): p. 4; Bifolco-Ronca (2014): n. 111; Frutaz (1972): vol I, p. 27, tavv. 40 & 43; Tooley (1939): nn. 474-477.