Palermo

RARE VARIANT of the map printed in Leiden by Pieter Vander Aa in 1723, included in the Thesaurus antiquitatum et historiarum Siciliae... Lugduni Batavorum, excudit Petrus van der Aa... MDCCXXIII- [MDCCXXV]. The title in the cartouche is PALERMO in place of Panormus Urbs metropolis Siciliae; also in the cartouche is the imprint “se vend à Leide chez Pierre Vander Aa avec privilege”. This inscription indicates that the plan of Palermo was also sold individually by the printer Vander Aa.

This is a very careful copy of Braun-Hogenberg's plan, the only variant being the title, here moved to the lower right and inserted in a Baroque-style composition consisting of various figures including a putto holding a compass. It is first published in the collection of Johannes Janssonius, Theatrum urbium Italiae aliarumque in insulis Maris Mediterraneae, Amsterdam s.d. (c. 1657), vol. V. Janssonius set out to renew the success enjoyed by Braun's Civitates orbis terrarum and succeeded in acquiring en bloc the collection of copperplates from the heirs of the last publisher-engraver of the work in Cologne; having eliminated the most deteriorated ones, he added several new ones, resulting in a splendid edition full of plates decorated with cartouches and frames in the Baroque style, motifs dear to the author, who understood the instances of his century and made himself its spokesman. At the end of the century, Frederik de Witt, who already had to his credit editions of maps and atlases, came into possession of the plates published by Janssonius and prepared a new edition entitled Theatrum praecipuarum totius Europae urbium tam icono- graphice quam cospicue delineatarum, Amsterdam s.d. (c. 1680). Finally, the plate came into the possession of publisher Pieter Vander AA, who used it to illustrate the work of Johan Georg Graevius, Thesaurus antiquitatum et historiarum Siciliae... Lugduni Batavorum, excudit Petrus van der Aa... MDCCXXIII- [MDCCXXV].

Etching with fine later hand colour, very good condition.