Hungaria

In the lower left corner, in a cartouche, the title is engraved: HUNGARIA. At the bottom right is the Scale of Italian Miles 50, equal to 69 mm. Orientation on the four sides in the center with the name of the cardinal points: Septentrio, Meridies, Oriens, Occidens, north is at the top. Graduation in the margins of 3' in 3', from 45° 10' to 49° 22' of latitude and from 38° 57' to 46° 4' (from 38° 40' to 46° 20' in the upper side) of longitude.

Anonymous ma, without date and editorial indications. It is a faithful derivation of the map by Gerard Mercator included in the Germaniae tabulae geographicae published in Duisburg in 1585. Although unsigned, the map is undoubtedly attributed to the workshop of Matteo Florimi and was published in Siena around 1600. The plate seems to be attributable to the hand of the Flemish engraver Arnoldo di Arnoldi, who collaborated with Florimi between 1600-1602.

Etching and engraving, printed on contemporary laid paper with illegible watermark, with margins, perfectly restored longitudinal tear, traces of glue on the reverse, minimal abrasions, otherwise in good condition.

Very rare work, registered for only 5 institutional examples in Bifolco-Ronca (cf. Cartografia e Topografia Italiana del XVI secolo, p. 1194).

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. 505; Elisa Boffa, Un tipografo calabrese a Siena: Matteo Florimi, in “Accademia dei Rozzi” (2013): II, n. 11; H.A.M. van der Heijden, Matteo Florimi (+1613) – Landkarten und Stadtplanverleger in Siena, in “Florilegium Cartographicum”, Lipsia (1993): n. 9; Tibor Szathmáry (1987), Descriptio Hungariae, n. 88; Száantai (1996), Atlas Hungaricus, Florimi 1, vol.1, p.184.