LA CORSICA DEDICATA ALL'ECCELLENZE LORO I SIGNORI GENERALE E PRESIDENTE DEL SUPREMO MAGISTRATO

Very rare map of Corsica printed by Sebastiano Francesco Batini, in the town of Corte, Corsica.

Bottom left cartouche supported by mermaids with title, dedication and lists of Jurisdictions, and the indication Il Colorito Verde spiega ciò che è per ora in mano dei Genovesi (the green color explains what is for now in the hands of Genova). At the uppper right large decorative cartouche with tritons with coat of arms of Corsica in the center.

The map was published to accompany Don Gregorio Salvini's Giustificazione della rivoluzione di Corsica – combattuta – dalle riflessioni di un Genovese e difesa da un corso di Salvini; stampata in Corte nel 1764 per Sebastiano Francesco Batini, ecc. con licenza dei Superiori e dedicata a Sua Eccellenza il Signor Pasquale de’Paoli, generale del Regno e capo del supremo magistero di Corsica.

1764 was a very important year in the island's history. The Treaty of Compiègne signed on August 6, 1764, stipulated that France granted the Republic of Genoa to continue its military occupation of Ajaccio, Calvi and Saint-Florent, as well as Bastia and Algajola, for a period of four years. This treaty resulted from the realization that the Genoese had been unable to overthrow Pasquale Paoli's Republic of Corsica.

Paoli was a Corsican patriot (Stretta di Morosaglia, Bastia, 1725-London 1807); he studied in Naples and joined the Neapolitan army; in 1755 he returned to Corsica, where the assembly of S. Antonio della Casabianca proclaimed him leader and general, and he enacted a series of reforms, especially in the judicial system and in the economic sector. Turning to military action in the struggle against Genoa for independence, he reported successes on the sea with the race war. The Genoese turned for help to France (1764), which sent troops to the island.

Alongside his military and governmental action, Paoli combined intense propaganda work for the cause of free Corsica. He stimulated and followed closely the publicistic interventions of Gregorio Salvini, who dedicated to him, in 1764, the second edition of the Giustificazione della rivoluzione di Corsica, and promoted the publication of the first island newspaper, the official voice of the government, the Ragguagli dell’isola di Corsica (1760).

Almost all examples of Salvini's report are without the map; those that contain it show the map printed on thin paper and folded several times. Our example, devoid of paper folds and printed on thick paper, shows how the map also circulated separately.

Etching, impressed on contemporary laid paper, trimmed at marginal line, minimal restorations at lower left corner, otherwise in very good condition.

Bibliografia

Cervoni, Image del la Corse, pp. 126-127, n. 80.