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Details 1854 Mitchell Map of Northern Italy (Tuscany, Venice, Milan)
1850 (dated) $150.00

1849 Mitchell Map of Northern Italy (Tuscany, Venice, Milan)

ItalyNorthPart-mitchell-1849
$75.00
Italy, North Part. - Main View
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1849 Mitchell Map of Northern Italy (Tuscany, Venice, Milan)

ItalyNorthPart-mitchell-1849


Title


Italy, North Part.
  1849 (undated)     13 x 11 in (33.02 x 27.94 cm)     1 : 2500000

Description


This is a fine example of Thomas Cowperthwait and S. A. Mitchell's 1849 map of the north part of Italy. Centered on Tuscany, this map covers from Lombardy to the Papal States (Including Rome), and the Venetian Republic. The whole is engraved in Mitchell's distinctive style with green border work and vivid pastels. Political and topographical features are noted and color coded with elevation rendered by hachure.

As this map was being drawn, Italy was undergoing the process of Risorgimento, where the different city-states of the Italian Peninsula struggled for solidary as a single Italian nation. This map was prepared by S. A. Mitchell for publication by the Philadelphia firm of Thomas Cowperthwait & Co. as plate no. 59 in the 1849 edition of Mitchell's New General Atlas.

Cartographer


Samuel Augustus Mitchell (March 20, 1792 - December 20, 1868) began his map publishing career in the early 1830s. Mitchell was born in Bristol, Connecticut. He relocated to Philadelphia in 1821. Having worked as a school teacher and a geographical writer, Mitchell was frustrated with the low quality and inaccuracy of school texts of the period. His first maps were an attempt to rectify this problem. In the next 20 years Mitchell would become the most prominent American map publisher of the mid-19th century. Mitchell worked with prominent engravers J. H. Young, H. S. Tanner, and H. N. Burroughs before attaining the full copyright on his maps in 1847. In 1849 Mitchell either partnered with or sold his plates to Thomas, Cowperthwait and Company who continued to publish the Mitchell's Universal Atlas. By about 1856 most of the Mitchell plates and copyrights were acquired by Charles Desilver who continued to publish the maps, many with modified borders and color schemes, until Mitchell's son, Samuel Augustus Mitchell Junior, entered the picture. In 1859, S.A. Mitchell Jr. purchased most of the plates back from Desilver and introduced his own floral motif border. From 1860 on, he published his own editions of the New General Atlas. The younger Mitchell became as prominent as his father, publishing maps and atlases until 1887, when most of the copyrights were again sold and the Mitchell firm closed its doors for the final time. More by this mapmaker...

Source


Mitchell Jr., S. A., Mitchell's New General Atlas, Containing Maps Of The Various Countries Of The World, Plans Of Cities, Etc. Embraced In Forty-Seven Quarto Maps, Forming A Series Of Seventy-Six Maps And Plans, Together With Valuable Statistical Tables, 1849 edition.    

Condition


Very good. Minor spotting.

References


Rumsey 0537.058 (1846 edition). Phillips (Atlases) 814.