The only known example of the 1660 printing of this wall map

Arnoldo di Arnoldi was the leading engraver/mapmaker working in Italy at the start of the seventeenth century. Despite his importance, little is known of his biography. Although working under an Italian name, he described himself as 'Arnold Scherpensiel Belga' (from the Low Countries); he may have been brought to Bologna in 1595 to engrave maps for Giovanni Antonio Magini's national atlas, the Italia ..., latterly working with his brother Jacobo. However, in 1600 he left his employment with Magini and moved to Siena, entering the employment of Matteo Florimi, seemingly induced to break his contract by the promise of higher wages, while his brother chose to remain with Magini. In 1602, Jacobo left Magini to join his brother in Rome, only to find that Arnoldo had died in the interim. Jacobo returned to Bologna, with a third brother, Nicolo, to work for Magini again, but when he fell ill, in early 1603, the brothers returned to Holland. Nicolo went on to become an important mapmaker in his own right, under the name Nicolaas van Geelkercken.

While working for Florimi Arnoldo produced an important sequence of maps and city plans, the majority on a folio format, although very few are actually signed by him.

His most important single cartographic production is this outstanding ten-sheet wall-map of the world, first published in 1600, and subsequently reprinted in 1610, the 1640s, 1660 (this state) and 1669.
Cartographically the map is inspired by Petrus Plancius' planispheric map of the world from 1592; Plancius was Official Mapmaker to the Dutch East India Company and through that post had access to the most up-to-date cartographic materials assembled by the Dutch, and their rivals, in the great voyages of discovery and trade of the period. Shirley describes the Plancius map as 'a landmark in cartographic production [while] its influence on successive cartographers was very widespread'.
Unfortunately, only a single example of Plancius' map survives today, and that in poor condition, but it inspired this Italian derivative by Arnoldi, that disseminated that world view through Italy, cut off from the great overseas voyages by her geographical position, for the next seventy years.

Arnoldi's map is also 'very rare' (Shirley), the first printing recorded by him in only a single example; no example of the 1610 printing can be located; the 1641 printing is known in one example, the 1660 now only by this example, and the 1669 printing in perhaps two or three examples.

This example, joined in wall-map form, is in a quite remarkable state of preservation considering its age and the fragility of paper, capturing Arnoldi's masterful creation as it was intended to be seen (and displayed) in the great houses and offices of Italy.