Download - Altea Gallery

12 ALTEA GALLERY
ITALIAN ENGRAVING
The Italians were the first to use copper engraving to print maps (the technique evolving from decorative metalwork)
and were responsible for some of the most flamboyant maps. From the early Lafreri-school engravers, through Lucini and
Coronelli to the later work published by Zatta and Cassini, Italy produced maps on which there was as much artistry in
the style of engraving as the content.
Item 14
Item 15
Item 16
14 GASTALDI, Giacomo.
The ‘Upside-Down’ map of Africa
Prima Tavola.
Venice, c.1563. Trapizoid, 275 x (at greatest) 385mm.
Two sheets joined. Fine and crisp impression.
£1,900
The famous ‘upside-down’ map of Africa, engraved with north to the bottom
of the map, decorated with various sea-monsters, galleons and animals. Gastaldi
produced this finely-engraved version after his original woodcut for Ramusio’s
‘Delle navigationi et viaggi’ was destroyed in a fire at the printing house in 1557.
It is likely that the orientation is supposed to represent the view from Europe.
BETZ: 7; NORWICH: 6.
S/N: 12717
The ‘Upside-Down’ map of the Indian Ocean
15 GASTALDI, Giacomo.
Seconda Tavola.
Venice, Giunti, 1606. Trapizoid, 280 x (at greatest) 385mm.
Small repair bottom centrefold.
£1,600
Engraved with north to the bottom of the map, it shows Arabia (with Bahrain)
on the right, India, Ceylon and the Maldives, with the edge of Sumatra top left.
Published in Ramusio’s ‘Delle navigationi et viaggi’.
S/N: 8172
A “Lafreri-School” map of Iberia
16 FORLANI, Paolo.
[Untitled map of Iberia.]
Venice: Ferrando di Bertelli, c.1567. Two sheets joined, total 435 x 545mm.
Evidence of a crack in the printing plate on the lower left edge.
£9,800
An exceptional example of this rare separate-issue map of Iberia, on paper with an
anchor watermark with margins of at least 4cm on all sides.
Forlani was one of the most prominent members of the ‘Lafreri-school’ group of
mapmakers in Italy. Not only did he publish his own maps, his skills as engraver,
particularly for lettering, made other publishers commission him to make maps for
them: maps attributed to him were published by, among others, Camocio, Bertelli
and Zaltieri in Venice, and Duchetti in Rome. This is one of the few to bear his
name: of the 97 maps attributed to him by David Woodward, eighty are unsigned.
WOODWARD: The Maps and Prints of Paolo Forlani; MAPFORUM.COM: Issue 11,
biography, & Forlani’s Works, 68.
S/N: 7437
WWW.ALTEAGALLERY.COM