1850 Valmagini Case Map of Milan and Environs

A very large and one-of-a-kind case map of Milan and environs, produced around the time of the Revolutions of 1848, prepared by Francesco de Valmagini.

A Closer Look

Coverage extends from Bresso in the north to Quinto Sole in the south and from Novegro in the east to Baggio in the west. Major landmarks, such as the Castello Sforzesco and the Duomo di Milano, can be easily recognized. Many other major public buildings are numbered and listed in an accompanying index. Streets, railway lines, parks, farms, mansions of the elite (case), villages, and other features are noted throughout.

A Cartographic Tapestry

The structure of the map itself is quite interesting, laid out on nine sheets, eight of which are dissected into twelve sections of 14 square cm. The central section instead contains fifteen sections, including printed lists of sites on either side of the core of the city.

The sheets overlap in a kind of puzzle, duplicating each in lateral sections around the central sheet, resulting in an overall map of nine by nice sections, i.e., eighty-one total sections (the external measurement of which is 126 x 126 cm).

Milan, the Risorgiomento, and the Revolutions of 1848

The year 1848 saw the beginning of the First Italian War of Independence and the critical event known as the Le Cinque giornate di Milano, fierce fighting between the city's population and Austrian troops between March 18 and 22 of that year. The spark that started the rebellion began in the preceding days when the news spread of revolutionary uprisings that broke out in France, Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, and Croatia.

On March 21st, 1848, the Milanese captured the Austrian barracks and, later that evening, forced the retreat of Marshal Radetzky and his Austrian troops, who withdrew from the city. The events helped thrust Milan into a central role of the Risorgiomento - the process of Italian independence and unification - as volunteers from nearby cities of Turin and Genoa began arriving the next day.

Publication History and Census

This undated map was prepared by Francesco de Valmagini. It includes the Strada Ferrata per Monza (opened 1840) and the Strada Ferrata Ferdinandea (1846), but no other railways, suggesting a date of the late 1840s or c. 1850. The folding sheets comprising the whole map are contained in an original green card folder and slipcase with a printed label: 'Die Pläne sind beim Verfasser selbst zu bekommen. Adresse Professor Franz Valmagini, Cont del Carmine. N1647.' Due to the unusual dissection and presentation of the map, along with the lack of a clear title, cataloging is likely to be inconsistent. As with Valmagini's other large-format folding maps, it is likely to have been printed in very low numbers. A thorough search of Valmagini's documented maps in the OCLC and other catalogs does not reveal another example of this map. Therefore, the present work, which was last on the market in 2016, is the only known example of this map.