Carta del Regno di Sicilia Ricavata dall'Originale Carta del Barone di Schmettau..

Large wall map in 4 sheets - to be joined - of Sicily, 1809-10, printed by Reale Officio Topografico of Naples based on the work outlined by Prussian Baron Samuel Schmetteau (1721).

This is the first official map of Sicily, i.e., produced by a state body: the Reale Officio Topografico which can be read in the cartouche. The body, established in 1807, was in charge of surveying and producing topographical and military maps. In 1808, a proposal to make a topographic map based on a new survey was approved under the guidance of astronomer Piazzi, director of the Palermo Astronomical Observatory. Contrasts between civilians and the military also on the purpose of the map led to the abandonment of the idea of a new map surveyed on the ground, and a "military recognition of the kingdom" was preferred, relying on the already existing cartography, namely Schmettau's map of 1719-21. Thus, within a couple of years it was possible to set up a map of the island in four sheets, at a slightly larger scale than Schmetteau's printed maps. From these he also takes the coordinate system, which is only marginally corrected by an indication appearing on the first sheet, where a segment of meridian 31, shifted eastward by about 5 primes, is shown at the top center, with the inscription "Meridian corrected."

The map was engraved under the direction of Tommaso Lomastro, chief engraver of the Officio, by Pietro Weingher, Ferdinando Morghen and Raffaele Lombardo for the characters.

The large title cartouche on the first sheet is a faithful copy of that used by Paolo Santini for the map of England included in his Atlas Universel of 1776. Interestingly, the typeface chosen by those in charge of the Officio was taken from the table representing the foreign powers on which the fortunes of the kingdom of Sicily were founded.

A long legend of "signs and abbreviations," engraved on a marble plaque set among the ruins of an unlikely Sicilian antiquity, describes with mola care the cities in their various sizes and shapes, merchant ports, mills, roads.

The Reale Officio Topografico [Royal Topographical Office] was a military scientific institute in Naples responsible for the construction of topographical, geographical and hydrographic maps of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Founded in the Rosario di Palazzo area in 1781 under the name of Deposito topografico by Giovanni Antonio Rizzi Zannoni, it was later transferred to Pizzofalcone. Rizzi Zannoni arrived in Naples in 1781 with the task of founding and directing the first Reale Officio Topografico in Naples, destined to become one of the first state cartographic institutions in Europe, bringing with him all his instruments and his entire geographic archive.

Favored by the benevolence of Ferdinand IV, who was always very attentive to scientific progress, and overcoming the opposition of his contemporaries, Abbot Galiani, overcoming various and complex oppositions in the royal court, promoted the purchase of modern instruments, suggested by Rizzi Zannoni, and obtained very large premises (in the Rosario area of the Palace) where the cartographic laboratories were implanted and he himself was appointed Commissioner of the enterprise.

With the establishment of the Officina Topografica important draughtsmen, cartographers and mathematicians came to Naples and became part of the laboratory, which became a high-level school in the preparation of maps, contributing to its records until the fall of the Bourbon dynasty.

Etching and engraving, minor restorations and abrasions to sheet 1 (upper left), otherwise in very good condition.

Bibliografia
Valerio-Spagnolo, Sicilia 1477-1861 la collezione Spagnolo-Patermo, p. 582, n. 292.