La Famosa Città d'Ancona

In the upper center, below the top border, is engraved the title: LA FAMOSA CITTÀ D’ANCONA.. Along the lower margin, spread over twelve columns, is an alphanumeric legend (A-Z, AA-SS, 1-42 and two cross-references marked by the symbols † and *,) which is followed by the imprint Matteo Florimj for. Siena. Orientation provided by a wind rose in the sea, north is to the left.

This is a copy of the monogrammist AB's plan of Ancona attributed to Donato Bertelli, itself based on Giacomo Fontana's map (1569), whose title is also taken. Two major differences: the territorial extent is reduced to meridion and the legend is corrected. The entry "E," left blank in Bertelli's map, disappears, as in Fontana's map it referred to the Cittadella by Antonio da Sangallo, located in a territorial area not depicted on either Bertelli's map or this one by Florimi.

Giacomo Fontana's map of Ancona is the "first perspective plan of the city, published by Rinier da Prato in 1569 based on a design by Giacomo Fontana. The work, dedicated to Guidubaldo II della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, represents the prototype of monumental relief of the city, which would be the subject of replication for about two centuries. As Mariano (2013) notes, probably the dispersed plan that Fontana, as early as 1562, claims to have drawn for Count Federico Altemps, constituted the reference relief for this engraving. The work is very accurate and detailed, and clearly shows the main monuments of the city, recalled in the 87-item legend, as well as accurately delineating the walls and fortifications, set in a clear urban fabric that provides a valuable topographical and orographic description of Ancona in the second half of the 16th century" (cf. Cartografia e Topografia Italiana del XVI secolo, p. 2116).

Etching and engraving, impressed on contemporary laid paper and finely hand coloured, with margins, restore at the central fold and glue braids on verso, overall in good condition.

Rare work, surveyed for only 8 institutional examples according Bifolco-Ronca (see Cartografia e Topografia Italiana del XVI secolo, p. 2121).

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. 1076; Elisa Boffa, Un tipografo calabrese a Siena: Matteo Florimi, in “Accademia dei Rozzi” (2013): II, n. 2; H.A.M. van der Heijden, Matteo Florimi (+1613) – Landkarten und Stadtplanverleger in Siena, in “Florilegium Cartographicum”, Lipsia (1993): n. 19; Tooley (1939): n. 108.