HISPANIAE DESCRIPTIO

Etching with engraving, printed on - 2 sheets - contemporary laid paper with "Letter M under star in shield" watermark (Woodward 314-331), with margins, very good condition.

A magnific example of the first state, of three, (cfr. Bifolco-Ronca, p. 1110 - only 15 examples known).

The map of the Iberian Peninsula by Vincenzo Luchini, although based on the Virko Paletin model, seems to be a faithful copy of the "Nova Hispania Descriptio" by Hieronimus Cook, published in Antwerp in 1553, in turn based on the work by Paletino.

In fact, the paper has more correspondence with the Cook map: besides being both engraved on copper, have the same scale in alloys of Spain and the large cartouche with the imperial shield of Charles V.

It is different, however, due to the lack of the route lines; for the sea made through the use of "puntinato" rather than with the wavy line and for the presence of the short geographical description contained in the cartouche in the lower right corner, which is left blank in the Cook map.

The copper plate was certainly in possession of Claudio Duchetti (probably through Lafreri in whose catalog a "Spain" is listed) and subsequently inherited by Giacomo Gherardi. The work, in fact, is included in the catalog drawn up on behalf of the widow Quintilia Lucidi (17-19 October 1598, n ° 418) where it is described as "doi fogli reali della spagna reale".

The plates were purchased by Giovanni Orlandi in 1602, which reprints them with the addition of his own
address, and finally by the Flemish Hendrick van Schoel, author of a further edition which still bears the date of 1602 (but published after 1614).

Other Literature:
Almagià (1948): p. 48; Christie’s (2012): n. 8; Destombes (1970): n. 4; Edwards (1933): n. 11; Ganado (1994): VI, n. 68; Kinauer (1970): n. 94; Ruge (1904-16): IV, n. 90.14 e V, n. 86.7; Shirley (2004): p. 394, n. 37; Valerio (2018): f. 76; Wieder (1915): p. 4, n. 18 & p. 24, n. 14; Cartografía de España (1994): n. 6; Hernando Rica (1995): p. 129; Karrow (1993): n. 60/1.5; Pagani (2012): p. 82; Tooley (1939): n. 530.