Russia, from an extremely rare Italian wall map of Europe

CAMOCIO, Giovanni Francesco.

[Moscovia.]
Venice, c. 1595. Four sheets conjoined, total 680 x 630mm.

Remargined, minor restoration.

The four top-right sheets from an extremely rare and finely rendered 12 sheet wall map of Europe, only a few examples known. Top left is Lapland, with the end of the Gulf of Finland, with the site of St Petersburg, a century before its founding and Archangel; top right should be Novaya Zemlya, but it is missing; bottom right is the course of the Volga, the Sea of Azov and the north coast of the Black Sea, with Tartar tents marked; bottom left is the Crimea, the mouth of the Danube, with Moscow, Kiev, Vilnius and Riga marked.

The map originally appeared in Camocio's atlas, the 'Quattro Parte Del Mondo' which consisted of four wall maps of Asia, Africa, Europe, America and a small world map, copies of which are known to exist in the Museo Correr, Venice, Yale University Library and the James Ford Bell Library, Minnesota. Camocio was one of the principal mapmakers of the 'Lafreri' school, whose output signalled the transition between the maps of Ptolemy and the maps of Mercator and Ortelius. As such he is one of the founders of mapmaking as we know it today. It is a testament to the skills of the Venetian school of mapmakers, both in its virtuoso execution and use of up-to-date geographical knowlege.


Stock ID : 10887