1629 Picart Edition of the Sanudo-Vesconte Plan of Acre, Israel

Medieval Acre, as a Hospitaller Stronghold.

This is J. Picart's striking 1629 plan of the fortified city of Acre (in modern day Israel / Palestine), based on the c. 1320 manuscript plan of Pietro Vesconte: a depiction of the medieval port as a stronghold of the Knights Hospitaller in the Holy Land and the most important Crusader beachhead to the east.

A Closer Look

This bird's-eye view of the Mediterranean port is oriented to the east and depicts the multi-layered city walls and their many towers. Picart's engraving follows the outline of the Vesconte - as did the first printed version of it, the 1611 Bongars - but unlike the Bongars, Picart includes much more detail. Where the earlier versions have open spaces, Picart depicts churches, monasteries, and Hospitaller strongholds in raised profile, identified by numbers keyed to a table of locations in the lower left.

The Hospitaller Stronghold

This plan of Acre, in its original Vesconte manuscript, appeared in the Venetian diplomat Marino Sanudo's Liber secretorum fidelium crucis (Book of Secrets for True Crusaders), which detailed a proposed effort to take the Holy Land for the Christian West. In the context of Bosio's history of the Hospitallers, choosing a 14th-century source was apt. After the 12th-century fall of Jerusalem, Acre became the Order's headquarters and remained so until its fall in 1291 to the Mamluk Sultanate. Vesconte's depiction of the city was the closest available to the period when Acre was a Crusader stronghold.

Publication History and Census

This printed edition of the plan appeared in Jean Baudoin's 1629 translation of Giacomo Bosio's 1594 Dell' Istoria della sacra religione et illustrissima militia di san Giovanni…. Earlier translations did not contain maps. The Baudoin translation was reprinted in 1643 and again in 1659; we are not aware of any state changes between editions. The book is well represented in institutional collections; the view appears on the market from time to time, but it is neglected in institutional collections. We see one 1643 example in the collection of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek.

Cartographers

Jean Picart (fl. c. 1620 - 1640) was a French engraver active in Paris in the early 17th century. He worked primarily as an engraver of book illustrations, ornaments, portraits, and maps. He should not be confused with the contemporary Franco-Flemish still-life painter and art dealer Jean-Michel Picart (c. 1600 - 1682), who was also active in Paris.   Further Details...

Marino Sanudo (or Sanuto) Torsello (c. 1270 – 1343) was a Venetian statesman and geographer. He is best known for his efforts to instigate a new crusade to the Holy Land. This lifelong task resulted in his book, 'Liber Secretorum Fidelium Crucis (Book of Secrets for True Crusaders) which would be supplented by an array of the earliest surviving portolan charts of the Mediterranean coast and the Black Sea, executed by Pietro Vesconte. Sanudo was born to an aristocratic trading family in Venice around 1270; his father was a member of the Venetian Senate. In his youth Sanuto traveled broadly, visiting in time Acre, Greece, Romania, Palestine, Egypt, Armenia, Cyprus and Rhodes. He would eventually join the entourage of the Doge of Venice; after 1305 he attended Cardinal Riccardo Petroni in Rome.

He was a vigorous correspondent, particularly with travelers whose reach had extended beyond his own.

Perhaps related to his early experiences in Acre - which fell rapidly to Muslim forces shortly after his visit there - Sanuto was a lifelong advocate of a crusade to capture the Holy Lands for the west. While he was certainly not alone among such instigators, his emphasis on strategy, practical financial backing, and detailed modern cartography set his proposals apart. His long term approach - with a preparatory blockade of and capture of Egypt to secure the invasion's flank - was never implemented. Nevertheless his book, often revised and updated, would find its way into the hands of not only the Pope but also King Charles IV of France. At least eleven manuscript copies are known to survive. Its complement of maps by Vesconte are the earliest medieval maps intended for military purposes.   Further Details...

Pietro Vesconte (fl. 1310-1330) was a Genoese cartographer and geographer. His early portolan charts set the standard for such works produced in both Italy and Spain throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Very little is known of his life. He was born in Genoa, but produced the bulk of his work in Venice. His charts - among the first of any to be signed and dated - remain among the earliest to accurately chart the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea; his works contain some of the earliest attempts to chart the British Isles. In addition to his separate charts, he is known to have authored no fewer than four manuscript navigational 'atlases,' consisting of particular navigational charts that could be joined to make a larger, general one. His work was groundbreaking in its accuracy: the mappamundae that characterize this period were not characterized by precision, being more in the way of mnemonic aids for the study of the world by people unlikely to actually travel it. Many of his works, however, focused on the Holy Land, and these were produced in order to encourage a crusade to those regions.   Further Details...

Condition

Very good. Vertical printer's crease to left of centerfold. Else excellent.

References

OCLC 918808316 (spurious date).