Perusia Augusta

At the top center, under the upper edge, the title PERUSIA AUGUSTA is impressed. At the bottom, moved to the left, the editorial imprint Matteo florimi for. At the bottom center we find the monogram .RAF. F. who identifies Raffaello Schiaminossi as the author of the etching. A numerical legend of 119 references to notable places and monuments is inserted along the lower margin, distributed over seventeen columns. Follow, the inscription: Luoghi fuor de le mura che non se so[n] potute mettere in disegno de i quali i nomi sono qui sotto S. Caterina monasterio di monache. Cappuccini del mo[n]te Ospidale di S. Cosimo e damiano Cappuccini S. bened. Monache. Orientation provided by a wind rose on the left of the table, west is at the top.

“It is an axonometric map that follows the model of the fresco by Egnatio Danti, engraved by Raffaello Schiaminossi for the publisher Matteo Florimi. We believe that, as usual for Florimi, it is a faithful copy of a previous anonymous attribute to Mario Cartaro. The layout is absolutely identical, as is the legend below with the same inscription and the number of references, 119 [...] The work explicitly takes up the mural painting by Egnazio Danti in the Belvedere Gallery in the Vatican entitled Perusiae Augustae Corographia (1581-1582), part of the cycle of frescoes finished in 1585. Danti's representation unites plan and view, according to a model that will later be re-proposed by Livio Eusebi in his famous plan of 1602 and by Faucci, even in 1808. The city plan thus set up will therefore be used in almost all plans of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The orientation is probably due both to the desire to standardize the point of view of the view and the plan, and to the desire to offer a frontal view of the two most important buildings: the Cathedral of S. Lorenzo and the Rocca Paolina. A rich legend allows you to identify doors, hospitals and religious complexes” (cf. Cartografia e Topografia Italiana del XVI secolo, p. 1796).

Etching and engraving, printed on contemporary laid paper with illegible watermark, trimmed to the copperplate, traces of glue on verso, otherwise in excellent condition.

Rare work, recorded for only 13 institutional examples according Bifolco-Ronca (cf Cartografia e Topografia Italiana del XVI secolo,  p. 2298).

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. 1183; Elisa Boffa, Un tipografo calabrese a Siena: Matteo Florimi, in “Accademia dei Rozzi” (2013): II, n. 22; H.A.M. van der Heijden, Matteo Florimi (+1613) – Landkarten und Stadtplanverleger in Siena, in “Florilegium Cartographicum”, Lipsia (1993): n. 38; Benevolo (1969): pp. 94-95, tav. XXI; Cassano (1990): pp. 206-207; Cecchini (1965): p. 89; L’Immagine delle città italiane (1998): pp. 173-174, n. 77.