LA NOBILISSIMA ET GRANDE CITTA DI PARIGI

On the upper left, contained in a ribbon-shaped cartouche, is printed the title: LA NOBILISSIMA ET GRANDE CITTA DI PARIGI. On the right are the city's coat of arms and that of the Valois. On the lower right are two panels. In the upper one, distributed over two columns, is engraved a numerical legend of 71 references to notable places and monuments. The lower inset reads: Ecco ch’io vi porto, stampato benigni lettori, l’anticha e gran citta di Parigi capo d[e]ll’antichiss.o regno di Francia: la qual citta fu fondata da Paris p.o Re della Francia, ch’dal suo nome la nomino 70 anni dopo la prima fondatione di Troia: et anni 498 dopo l’edification di Roma, come da Tolomeo è da Strabone fu nominata Lutetia dal lotto e grasso d[e]l suo fertiliss.o terreno. Questa ch’adesso risplende famosa p[er] esser piena di belicose genti, di homini literattiss.i in tutte le scientie, et arti di qual si voglia qualita, è al presente tanto popolosa et ben habitata ch’li fuochi, ch’essa sia, tra palazzi nobiliss.i e case minori si estende oltra il no di diece otto mille: ha di habitatori piu di sei cento millia; et circonda miglia 21 leghe 7 francese, lascio per hora di raccontar l’oppenioni inutili di molti antichi et moderni scrittori ch’delle meravigliose attioni di loro prencipi ragionano, per ch’ la fama ne è tanto chiara, ch’è sup[er]fluo il farlo, Non mi è paruto inutile il giunger a questa famosiss.a citta in uno angolo di questo foglio ridotta in poco spatio la parte universale di tutta la francia col confine de i suoi mari p[er] satisfattion de i lettori, Accettatela dunque giusta, ben stampata, e correttiss.a et state sani. The editorial imprint follows: Matteo Florimi Formis. At the bottom left is a box with the map of France, above which is a compass rose, with the north-west at the top.

Matteo Florimi's perspective plan of Paris is a clear derivation of Donato Rascicotti's map, in turn based on the anonymous plan Le Vray Pourtrait de la Ville, Cité & Université published in Paris around 1580. Like the French plan, here too neither the Commune nor the Tuilieres palace are drawn, and retains the old Louvre; instead, it reports the fortified wall near the Bastille and, above all, three arches of the Pont-Neuf in the small arm of the Seine. The area represented is more extensive, particularly to the south, but also to the west and east. (cf. Cartografia e Topografia Italiana del XVI secolo, p. 1066).

Etching and engraving, printed on contemporary laid paper with watermark "eagle in circle with crown" (similar to Woodward n. 64), with margins, restorations in the central fold visible from the verso, otherwise in good condition.

Rare work, recorded for only 17 institutional examples according Bifolco-Ronca (cf. Cartografia e Topografia Italiana del XVI secolo, p. 1068).

Matteo Florimi (Polistena c. 1540 - Siena 1613) was a publisher and merchant of books and prints. Of Calabrian origin, he settled in Siena in 1581, with a store “in Banchi”. Matteo Florimi's chalcographic activity was several times joined by master engravers such as Cornelis Galle, Arnoldo Arnoldi, Pieter de Iode, Jan Sadeler and artists such as Francesco Vanni, Ventura Salimbeni and Alessandro Casolani, with whom the printer collaborated in the preparation of religious subjects. Florimi's cartographic activity produced prints of many cities and territories around the world, which were never drawn for him, but were manipulations of already existing reliefs, or of maps published by other printers. In the second half of the sixteenth century, Florimi was far-sighted in devoting himself to the production of bird's-eye views of cities as faithfully as possible.  Florimi copied some maps by Antonio Lafreri, Claude Duchet, Abraham Ortelius. As far as map engraving work was concerned, in 1600, Matteo Florimi called the Flemish engraver Arnoldo degli Arnoldi to work in his workshop with the promise of greater compensation than that bestowed upon him by Giovanni Antonio Magini, with whom the artist was working. This offer by Florimi triggered the wrath of Magini, who, though not naming him, called him an "envious counterfeiter" for stealing such a skilled cartographer from him. The collaboration between Florimi and Arnoldi lasted only two years (1600-1602), but it was quite productive: together they printed the Stato di Siena, la Choronografia Tusciae, la Nuova descrittione della Lombardia, l’Europa, l’America and the Descrittione Universale della Terra.

Bibliografia

Bifolco-Ronca, Cartografia e Topografia Italiana del XVI secolo (2018), tav. 436; Elisa Boffa, Un tipografo calabrese a Siena: Matteo Florimi, in “Accademia dei Rozzi” (2013): II, n. 19; H.A.M. van der Heijden, Matteo Florimi (+1613) – Landkarten und Stadtplanverleger in Siena, in “Florilegium Cartographicum”, Lipsia (1993): n. 36; Shirley (2004): III, n. 48; Boutier (2007): p. 111, n. 32.