DESCRITTIONE DEL TERRITORIO BRESCIANO CON LI SUOI CONFINI...

In the cartouche, in the lower left corner, is engraved the title: DESCRITTIONE DEL TERRITORIO BRESCIANO CON LI LI LI SUOI CONFINI. REDONE BY ME LEONE PALLAVICINO PAINTER THE YEAR M.D.LXXXXVII. At lower right, under a compass, is represented the scale measure of ten miles (10 miles = 103 mm). Near the lower right margin reads: Dista[n]tie from Bressa to several lands. Follows a list with the distances of the places from Brescia. Map without graduation in the margins. Orientation provided by the names of the winds on the four sides in the center: TRAMONTANA, MEZZO DI, LEVANTE, PONENTE, the north is at the top.

Detailed and important map of the province of Brescia. Each neighboring province has its own coat of arms. The cartographic source is, once again, the map of Cristoforo Sorte, although Pallavicino does not seem to have the intent to update it according to the latest and most accurate findings, but, given the extraction of the author, who claims to be a painter, proposes the territory in a new, more decorative and attractive way. To this end, in fact, the sailboats inserted in the lake of Garda and Iseo, the trees in the plains, forests or mountains with shaded reliefs to give a sense of depth.

Cristoforo Sorte was a painter, cartographer and engineer, among the students of Giulio Romano. Sorte is passionate about topography and cartography and attended a course to specialize. In 1556 he was in Brescia where he worked as a surveyor and hydraulic engineer, carrying out numerous interventions as an expert at the magistrate to the hidden goods, concerning the regulation of the flow of water in rivers and canals. In this period, he realizes for the public administration the map of the Brescian territory Brixiani Agri Descriptio dated 1560.

Leone Pallavicino was probably born in the territory of Brescia, nothing is known of his youth and his artistic training in both painting and engraving. In painting, Pallavicino was an artist who was much appreciated for his particular talent, which led him to collaborate with important artists and to obtain numerous work assignments. In 1591, he made a series of engravings taken from drawings by Brescian authors in honor of the then bishop of the city. The following year, he engraved a perspective view of Orzinovi signed Leon Pallavicino fecit. In 1597 in addition to engraving and publishing this chart of the Brescian, he made a series of engravings entitled Le danzatrici and made the intaglio illustrations for the work Nuove inventioni di balli. The date of his death is not certain, but it can be placed around 1625.

Etching and engraving, printed on six sheets, total dimensions mm 1210x670. Beautiful example, printed on contemporary virgin paper, with margins in excellent condition.

Our exemplar of the map of Pallavicino presents itself with the cartouche in the upper left corner - destined to the noble coat of arms - empty: "in the upper left corner we find a large noble coat of arms that was applied above the engraving so that it could be changed according to the commission of the family or the addressee of the map" (cf. Fontanella-Nova, Il territorio di Brescia, p. 44). At the top right of the depiction of Brescia, a small cartouche - which usually contains the representation of the lion - is empty here. This means that this copy is a second edition of the map, an issue not described in the bibliography.

Fundamental work for the cartography of Brescia. Very rare.

Bibliografia

Bifolco-Ronca, Cartografia e topografia italiana del XVI secolo, tav. 961; Almagià (1929): p. 39, tav. XLII; Arrigoni-Bertarelli (1930): n. 1184; Bifolco-Ronca (2014): n. 48; Fontanella-Nova (2016): pp. 44-47, n. 10; Marinelli (1881): n. 616; Perini (1996): pp. 59-60; Tooley (1939): n. 148.