Magini, Italia and Sardinia et Sicilia — Geographiae Universae, Venice 1596 (pair, sold together)

A pair of original copperplate engravings — Italia and Sardinia et Sicilia — from the modern atlas section of Giovanni Antonio Magini's Geographiae Universae tum Veteris tum Novae Absolutissimum Opus, the first edition of his major commentary on Ptolemy, published in two volumes at Venice in 1596 by the heirs of Simone Galignani de Karera. The two sheets are sold here as a pair: Italy and the islands together, on consistent paper from the same volume, with matching impression quality.

Giovanni Antonio Magini (1555–1617) was Professor of Mathematics at the University of Bologna — the post that Galileo had also sought and lost to Magini in 1588 — and one of the most influential cartographers of the late Cinquecento. His Geographiae Universae was conceived as a complete revision of Ptolemy in two parts: the first volume reproduces the twenty-seven antique tabulae of the classical Geography, the second presents thirty-seven modern tabulae representing the world as known to Magini's own age. The maps are engraved at a smaller, portable scale than the great Ortelius and Mercator atlases of the period, and the work was conceived as a serious scholarly tool rather than a luxury cabinet object — a working geography for the universities and the educated reader. The 1596 first edition is the desirable issue; later Latin editions of 1597 and the Italian editions of 1598 and 1620 followed, but the 1596 sheets carry the cleanest impressions from fresh plates.

The Italia plate covers the entire peninsula from the Alps to the Strait of Messina, with Corsica to the west and the Adriatic coast in fine detail; the verso carries the commentary on Scandia and Icaria with its account of the 1380 Zichmni voyage. The Sardinia et Sicilia plate treats the two great Mediterranean islands as a paired subject, an unusual editorial choice for the period — most general atlases bundled them with Italy on a single sheet — and its verso carries the chapter on Forum Iulii (Friuli) and Istria, page 144 of the volume. The two plates together make a coherent geographical statement on the Italian world, and would have been bound consecutively in their original volume.

A note on the title page. The pair is accompanied by a vendor-supplied photographic reference copy of the 1596 title page, retained as documentation of edition and provenance. The reference copy is filed with the maps and travels with them at sale; it is not itself an original printed sheet and is not part of the catalogued material.

Condition

Both plates very good. Clean, well-inked impressions with sharp engraving across the coastlines, lettering, and decorative cartouches. Wide margins on all sides, fully preserving the platemark and the verso text. Light age-toning consistent with late sixteenth-century laid paper. Neither sheet has tears, repairs, losses, or staining of consequence. The verso text on both sheets is clean and legible. [  — approximately 17 × 23 cm platemark.]

Rarity

First-edition Magini sheets from the 1596 Venice issue are the desirable state of his Ptolemy. The Italia plate as a single-sheet modern map of the peninsula is an attractive subject for the home market and for general Renaissance map collectors. Sardinia et Sicilia as a paired Mediterranean map is genuinely scarce: most Cinquecento atlases treat the two islands separately or include them as inset cartouches on a larger Italy sheet, so a dedicated paired plate is unusual and has its own specialist collector base. Sold as a pair from the same volume with matching paper and impression, the two sheets carry a coherence that is hard to assemble after the fact, and which adds a small premium over the sum of their individual values.

Specifications

Titles: Italia and Sardinia et Sicilia (sold as a pair)

Cartographer: Giovanni Antonio Magini (1555–1617), Professor of Mathematics, University of Bologna

Publication: Geographiae Universae tum Veteris tum Novae Absolutissimum Opus, first edition

Publisher: Heirs of Simone Galignani de Karera, Venice, 1596

Medium: Copperplate engravings on laid paper, with letterpress text to verso

Dimensions: each plate approximately 17 × 23 cm platemark, on sheets approximately 22 × 29 cm

Documentation: Vendor-supplied photographic reference copy of the 1596 title page accompanies the pair