VILLAMENA, Francesco – 1602 – VALLETA CITTA NOVA DI MALTA – SOLD

Description

VILLAMENA, Francesco – DELL’ANTELLA Francesco – 1602

This map has been repaired in the centrefold, therefore i have reduced the price to euro 2500.

This very rare map with the title of: VALLETA CITTA NOVA DI MALTA is the first ever Valletta birds eye view

engraved by: Francesco Villamena

cartographer: Francesco dell’Antella

book : DELL’ISTORIA / DELLA / SACRA RELIGIONE .…by Giacomo Bosio in Rome 1602 published by Guglielmo Facciotto . 1602, 1684 Plate size: 324 x 432 mm The condition of this map is slightly cropped in the border and has a repair in top centre, yet otherwise a valuable gem, very hard to find. Its a copper engraving and the verso is blank. Notes: A manuscript of this plan was drawn by the Italian knight Fra Francesco dell’Antella towards the end of the sixteenth century and sent to Giacomo Bosio in Rome on 1st September 1600 to enable him to publish it in the history of the Order he was compiling. The medium used by the cartographer and the size of the plan are unknowm. The existence of this plan results from the printed version which appeared in 1602 in the third part of Bosio’s history . Possibly, the title of the manuscript plan was the same as that used by Bosio’s engraver, namely, VALLETA CITTA NOVA DI MALTA. Inset map of the Maltese islands in decorative cartouche at bottom-right corner. The coat of arms of Grand Master Alof de Wignacourt (1601-1622) is featured at the bottom-left corner. This plan was published in the first edition of Giacomo Bosio’s history of the Order, published in Rome by Guglielmo Facciotto in 1602 (Part III) page 874. The plan contains a key to 57 place names, also listing houses occupied by various personalities.
Subsequently other maps were derived from this one.
– VALLETTA CITTA NOVA DI MALTA – Lauro Giacomo – 1635, 1639, 1642
– VALLETTA CITTA NOVA DI MALTA – Merian Mattheus – 1638, 1649, 1688
– VALETTA CIVITAS NOVA DI MALTAE – Jannsonnius Johannes – 1657 De Wit Frederick – 1693, 1694 Van der Aa – 1723.