GENOVA

Rare perspective view of the city by Paolo Forlani, 1567. Example issued by Bolognino Zaltieri, with descriptive text on verso by Giulio Ballino, printed in Venice in 1569.

In the upper center, below the top edge, is engraved the title: GENOVA. Along the lower margin we find a numerical legend of 25 references to notable places, spread over five columns. Orientation with a wind rose, with simple indication of quadrants, north is at the top.

“Anonymous view, without date and editorial indications, based on the model published by Giovanni Francesco Camocio, which we attribute to Paolo Forlani. The work is in fact included in the collection Il primo libro delle città et fortezze del mondo (1567), which contains engravings by Forlani and Domenico Zenoi. Loose copies of the map are found in Lafreri atlases, such as the 16th-century collection in the Biblioteca Casanatense in Rome. The view is reprinted, unaltered, by Bolognino Zaltieri in two different editions of Giulio Ballino's De' disegni delle più illustri citta, et fortezze del mondo, both published in Venice in 1569. The view has no plate variant, but Zaltieri's issues have a descriptive text on the verso” ((cfr. Cartografia e topografia italiana del XVI secolo, p. 2173).

Paolo Forlani, a native of Verona, opened his own chalcographic workshop in Venice, Al segno del pozzo, in 1560, as reflected in some of his works. From 1566 he was active in Merzaria al segno della colonna and from 1569 in Merzaria al segno della nave. Forlani had business relationships with the major publishers of cartographic material of the time, among them Antonio Lafreri, the Bertelli family, and others. In addition to being a talented engraver, he was also quick to execute, a quality that enabled him to work for different publishers at the same time, and to execute a large amount of work. Woodward attributes about one hundred works to Forlani, most of which, however, are unsigned. Between 1560 and 1567, Forlani collaborated with Ferrando Bertelli, for whom he engraved about ten copperplates, with Camocio, Bolognino Zaltieri, and with Claudio Duchetti, for whom he engraved some maps. For his professional activity, however, the collaboration with Giacomo Gastaldi, for whom he engraved thirteen maps, was very important and valuable. In 1567 Forlani published and traded his work Il primo libro delle città et fortezze principali del mondo, whose branches later passed to Bolognino Zaltieri. It is likely that Forlani died during the plague that spread through Venice from 1575.

Beautiful proof, printed on contemporary laid virgin paper, descriptive text on verso, usual central crease, in very good condition.

Bibliografia

S. Bifolco, F. Ronca, Cartografia e topografia italiana del XVI secolo, p. 2173, tav. 1107; S. Bifolco, Città e Fortezze Principali del Mondo. Le prime raccolte italiane di cartografia urbana e gli isolari del XVI secolo, in “Cartografia e topografia italiana del XVI secolo”, pp. 137-152; Albert Ganado, The Forlani-Zenoi town books of 1567. A description and analysis, in “Florilegium Cartographicum. Beiträge zur Kartographiegeschichte und Vedutenkunde des 16. Bis 18. Jahrhunderts”, a cura di Peter H. Köhl e Peter H. Meurer, Lipsia, 1993, pp. 21-34; Béla Szalai, (adattamento e traduzione inglese Ivan Matković), The Representation of the Hungarian Towns in Domenico Zenoi’s and Paolo Forlani’s Cartographic Work, in “Kartografija i geoinformacije”, Vol.11 (Budapest, No.18 December 2012), pp. 4-37; Vladimiro Valerio, Piante e vedute di Napoli dal 1486 al 1599. L’origine della iconografia urbana europea, Napoli, 1998; p. 40, n. 32 e p. 47, n. 16; David Woodward, Paolo Forlani: Compiler, Engraver, Printer, or Publisher? in Imago Mundi, Vol. 44 (Londra, 1992), pp. 45-64.