1599 / 1624 Map of Italy (Lafreri Style)

Unrecorded state of a Lafreri-style map of Italy.

This is the 1664 second state of Donato Rasciotti's 'Lafreri School' map of Italy, engraved by Giovanni Battista Mazza and reissued in Venice by Stefano Scolari from the plate first published in 1599. It preserves Giacomo Gastaldi's geographical work through Domenico Zenoi's 1567 adaptation, extending the commercial life of a Renaissance image of Italy well into the following century. Of note, Mazza's exceptional mastery of engraving is evident; here, dense, varied stippling of the seas creates the illusion of roiling waves, setting the peninsula, islands, ships, and engraved ornaments against a vibrant, almost living background.

A Closer Look

The Italian peninsula runs diagonally across the sheet, from the Alpine arc and the broad Po river system to Calabria and the Strait of Messina. Corsica is shown in full, while Sardinia and Sicily extend beyond the lower border. Across the Adriatic, the deeply indented Dalmatian coast and its islands establish Italy within a wider maritime geography. Settlements crowd the river valleys and coasts, their small architectural symbols distinguished from the clustered hill profiles used for mountain ranges. Regional names overlay this dense local geography without reducing the peninsula to a diagram of political boundaries.

Fine, variegated stippling evokes a living, moving sea against which the coasts, islands, and sailing vessels stand out. Expansive flourishes turn the names of the seas into decorative elements in their own right. At the lower left, a marine figure holds the mileage scale; at the lower right, a circular wind diagram names the directions around its circumference. The large scrollwork cartouche beneath central Italy is crowned by winged figures and the date MDCLXIIII. Together, these features give the map visual richness that extends beyond its geographical purpose.

The underlying geography belongs to the tradition of Giacomo Gastaldi (c. 1500 - 1566), whose work supplied a foundation for generations of Italian mapmakers. Mazza's engraving followed Domenico Zenoi's 1567 map, retaining its essential geographical framework while giving particular prominence to the cartouches and decorative elements. The dedication expressly names Gastaldi and presents the map as a revised and expanded geography of all Italy, associating the engraving with an established authority even as it passed through successive publishers' hands.

The map includes its own description as part of its extremely long and worthy title, here in translation:

Italy, a most noble province of Europe, was called by various names, namely Saturnia, Ausonia, Enotria, Esperia, and Italia. It was also called Latio, Gran Grecia, Carmetia, and Rometia: but whether these names were used to refer to all of Italy or just a part of it, I cannot say. Pliny likens its shape to an oak leaf, and we liken it to a man's leg. Its borders are the German Alps to the north, the Sicilian and Tuscan seas to the middle, the Gulf of Venice with the Arsa River in Istria to the east, and the French Alps with the Varo River in the Genoa area to the west. It is 4,900 miles in circumference and 1,020 miles long. Its length is divided by the Apennines, with the middle in the territory of Rieti; The greatest width is between the Arsa and Varo rivers, 400 miles. The middle is between the mouth of the Pescara River and the mouth of the Tiber, 136 miles; the narrowest is in Calabria, 20 miles. It is divided into 19 regions: Istria, Friuli, Marca Trivisana, Lombardy, Romagna, Marca d'Ancona, Abruzzo, Puglia, Terra di Barri, Terra d'Otranto, Calabria, Basilicata, Terra di Lavoro, Campagna di Roma, Duchy of Spoleto, Tuscany, and Genoese. Biondo writes that it has 264 cities of bishoprics under it. And Pliny states that in ancient times there were 1,566 cities. Hieronymus says there were 700. The same Pliny writes that, when the Gallic war began, without other foreigners or those beyond the Po, it armed 60,000 horse and 700,000 infantry. Polybius almost confirms the same. In the cartouche at the bottom left is the dedication: To Your Most Illustrious Lord, my Most Col. Lord Francesco Morosino, Most Deigned Podestà of Treviso. Here is the Geography of all Italy by Jacopo Gastaldi, again in this latest edition, revised, corrected, and expanded with the names of the Regions as well as of all the other things contained in it. And a brief compendium of its size, boundaries, location, and qualities, all faithfully drawn from more worthy examples found by Gio. Batista Mazza Venetiano. I dedicate it with all humility to Your Most Illustrious Lordship, begging you to deign to accept it, and at the same time the affection of my perpetual devotion towards your most noble person, to whom I wish from God the height of every happiness. In Venice, the first day of December 1599. By Your Most Illustrious and Humble Servant Donato Rascioti.

The translation above preserves the wording supplied for the original 1599 dedication, including its Rasciotti subscription. Scolari's publishing address replaces Rasciotti at the foot of the dedication in the lower left. The geographical text itself places Italy within a learned tradition of antiquity, natural boundaries, episcopal cities, and classical population estimates.

Venetian Copperplate Across Three Generations

Giacomo Gastaldi (c. 1500 - 1566) supplied much of the geographical foundation for the Venetian map trade of the later Renaissance. His separately published map of Italy appeared in 1561, and Domenico Zenoi issued his own version in 1567. Rasciotti's map follows Zenoi closely, retaining the hydrography and settlement pattern while changing the cartouches. Its relationship to Gastaldi is therefore both cartographic and explicitly acknowledged in the dedication. Donato Rasciotti operated a Venetian print business at the Ponte dei Barettieri. On March 7, 1598, he obtained a 25-year Privilege (a form of early copyright) from the Venetian Senate for a collection of views and topographical prints. His publication of this map the following year was part of a business that combined newly engraved work with the acquisition and reuse of older plates. Mazza, the engraver named in the dedication, worked in the same Venetian publishing milieu. The plate's subsequent passage to Stefano Mozzi Scolari (c. 1612 - 1691) continued this pattern of reuse. Active as a printer in Venice between 1644 and 1687, Scolari worked near San Zulian and made republishing existing geographical copperplates an important part of his business. This impression preserves the original publisher's 1599 dedication while adding Scolari's address and a new date, making the sheet a record of successive Venetian publishing enterprises and inherited cartography.

Publication History and Census

Giovanni Battista Mazza engraved the plate for Donato Rasciotti, who first published it in Venice in 1599 with a dedication to Francesco Morosini, podesta of Treviso. The map derives from Domenico Zenoi's 1567 treatment of Gastaldi's geography. Borri's suggestion that the wording concerning Mazza might point to an earlier prototype remains a hypothesis; no such antecedent is known.

The present example is the second state, published by Stefano Scolari in 1664. It is identified by the date MDCLXIIII above the central cartouche and the address In Venetia Appresso Steffano Scolari forma a S. Zulian at the foot of the lower-left dedication.

Recorded first states of the map are held at the Newberry Library, Chicago; the Biblioteca Comunale, Florence; the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris; and the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. For the second state, Bifolco and Ronca record a single other example in the Moreschi Collection, Bergamo. The map is thus exceptionally scarce in either state, with the present Scolari issue being the rarer.

Cartographers

Donato Rasciotti (c. 1572 - 1618), also known as Donato Rascicotti and Rosigotti, was an Italian print publisher, dealer, and printer of Brescian origin, active principally in Venice and possibly also in Bologna and Rome. His Venetian shop stood at the Ponte dei Barettieri, where he traded in maps, topographical views, and other engraved prints. Some scholars identify him with Donato Resegato, a 'printer of drawings' arrested in Rome in 1577 on suspicion of stealing drawings from Antonio Lafreri's workshop, although this identification remains uncertain. On March 7, 1598, Rasciotti obtained a twenty-five-year privilege from the Venetian Senate to publish a new collection of views and topographical prints. His business combined the publication of new engravings with the reuse of existing copperplates. He issued some works by Agostino Carracci in their first states and acquired older plates associated with Tramezzino and Rota, extending their commercial life through subsequent impressions.   Further Details...

Giovanni Battista Mazza (fl. c. 1564 - 1589) was an Italian engraver and printer active in Venice in the latter part of the 16th century, known for his finely executed maps and religious prints. His birth, death, and early training remain poorly documented. Distinguished by precise, elegant engraving, Mazza produced several maps marketed by the Venetian publisher Donato Rascicotti, also known as Rasciotti. Among his notable cartographic works was a large world map engraved for Giuseppe Rosaccio in 1597, on which he identified himself as 'Giovan Battista Mazza venetiano Maestro delle stampe della Zecha de Venetia', indicating an association with the Venetian mint. His work extended beyond cartography to religious subjects, including engravings after compositions by Palma il Giovane. Mazza belongs to the generation of Venetian engravers whose craftsmanship supported the city's flourishing trade in separately issued maps and reproductive prints during the closing decades of the Renaissance.   Further Details...

Giacomo Gastaldi (c. 1500 - October, 1566) was an Italian astronomer, cartographer, and engineer active in the second half of the 16th century. Gastaldi (sometimes referred to as Jacopo or Iacobo) began his career as an engineer, serving the Venetian Republic in that capacity until the fourth decade of the sixteenth century. During this time he traveled extensively, building a large library relating to voyages and exploration. From about 1544 he turned his attention to mapmaking, working extensively with Giovanni Battista Ramusio, Nicolo Bascarini, and Giovanbattista Pedrezano, as well as taking private commissions for, among others, Venice's Council of Ten. He is credited with the fresco maps of Asia and Africa still extant in the map room of the Doge's Palace. Gastaldi was also one of the first cartographers to embrace copper plate over woodblock engraving, marking an important development in the history of cartography. His 1548 edition of Ptolemy's Geographia was the first to be printed in a vernacular; it was the first to be printed in copperplate. As with his Swiss/German contemporary Münster, Gastaldi's work contained many maps depicting newly discovered regions for the first time, including the first map to focus on the East Coast of North America, and the first modern map of the Indian Peninsula. His works provided the source for the vast majority of the Venetian and Roman map publishers of the 1560s and 70s, and would continue to provide an outsize influence on the early maps of Ortelius, De Jode, and Mercator.   Further Details...

Stefano Mozzi Scolari (c. 1612 - 1691) was a Venetian engraver and printer active between 1644 and 1687. He was known primarily as an illustrator and would be among the first engravers to devote his activity entirely to illustrated editions. His work included pieces entirely drawn and engraved by himself, images produced in collaboration with other artists and editors, and the reproduction of already published copperplates. This latter area appears to have been the reproduction of maps by other authors - for example his 1657 edition of Greuter's 1630 map of Italy - including the production of maps incorporating elements of various authors in a single work. He is most associated with his work from the vicinity of the Venetian parish church of San Zulian, where he also probably had lived since 1642, but Stefano Bifolco has asserted that he was also connected to the printers' shop at Santa Fosca. He was a member of the Venetian painters' guild between 1660 and 1683; his wills reflect his status as a well-off craftsman and owner of a printer shop.   Further Details...

Domenico (Zenoi) Zenoni (fl. 1540-1580) was a Venetian engraver, goldsmith, publisher and sometime pornographer active in Venice and Padua. The Venetian Senate granted him a 15-year privilege in December 1566 and licensed him to publish devotional prints, portraits and maps. A month later, he was granted a second licence which required that he show each print to the Esecutori contra la bestemmia (Executors against blasphemy) to ensure there was no obscenity in his work. This was apparently a problem for him: in 1568 he got his colleague Camocio fined by the Esecutori for having in Camocio's shop 'highly indecent sonnets' by Zenoni which had 'inserted among them several highly indecent drawings.' He probably had other partnerships with Donato and Ferrando Bertelli, but it is not known whether they also suffered fines for Zenoni's apparent pornographic excursions. In addition to his more risqué output, Zenoni produced a variety of devotional and allegorical prints, and at least fourteen maps. His work would continue to be published by Camocio, Zaltieri, de Huchin, Bertelli and others.   Further Details...

Condition

Very good. Minor barely perceptible closed and repaired tear extending from left border several inches into the sheet. A few old creases. Light wear on original centerfold. Light soiling to margins.

References

Bifolco, S. and Ronca, F., Cartografia e topografia italiana del XVI secolo: Catalogo ragionato delle opere a stampa, (Roma: Edizioni Antiquarius, 2018), tav. 927, I/II. Almagià, R., Monumenta cartographica Vaticana, Vol. II, Carte geografiche a stampa di particolare pregio o rarità dei secoli XVI e XVII esistenti nella Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, (Città del Vaticano: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1948), p. 32. Almagià, R., Monumenta Italiae cartographica: Riproduzioni di carte generali e regionali d'Italia dal secolo XIV al XVII, (Firenze: Istituto Geografico Militare, 1929), p. 27, I. Bifolco, S. / Ronca, F., Cartografia rara italiana: XVI secolo. L'Italia e i suoi territori. Catalogo ragionato delle carte a stampa, (Roma: Edizioni Antiquarius, 2014), no. 18. Borri, R., L'Italia nell'antica cartografia, 1477–1799, (Ivrea: Priuli and Verlucca, 1999), p. 63, no. 65. Borri, R., L'Italia nelle antiche carte dal Medioevo all'Unità nazionale, (Scarmagno: Priuli and Verlucca, 2010), pp. 79–80, no. 64, fig. 83. Frutaz, A. P., Le carte del Lazio, (Roma: Istituto di Studi Romani, 1972), Vol. II, tav. 50. Karrow, R. W., Jr., Mapmakers of the Sixteenth Century and Their Maps: Bio-bibliographies of the Cartographers of Abraham Ortelius, 1570, Based on Leo Bagrow's A. Ortelii Catalogus Cartographorum, (Chicago: Speculum Orbis Press for the Newberry Library, 1993), no. 30/90.8. Perini, C., L'Italia e le sue regioni nelle antiche carte geografiche, edited by Marcus Perini, (Verona: Cierre, 1996), p. 32. Tooley, R. V., 'Maps in Italian Atlases of the Sixteenth Century, Being a Comparative List of the Italian Maps Issued by Lafreri, Forlani, Duchetti, Bertelli and Others, Found in Atlases,' Imago Mundi, Vol. 3 (1939), pp. 12–47, nos. 335b and 338a.