Navigatione dell’Europa con Parte dell’Africa et dell’Asia che con essa confinano

Etching and engraving, printed on two sheets and joined.

In the cartouche at the top, with the coat of arms of The Medici family: Al Ser.mo S.re Gran Duca di Toscana E hormai invecchiato meco il desiderio che hò sempre havuto connumerato dall’A. V. Ser.ma nel n.o di quei S.ri che la servano con vero effetto di volontà; Ma la mancanza dell’ecc.ni degne di lei m’hà sin qui ritenuto di farmele conoscer tale: Hora che me capitato in disegno tutta l’Europa co[n] parte dell’Africa e dell’Asia gia lineate dall’Ecc.te Cosmografo S.r Gio. Home Portughese hò giudiccato darl’ al mo[n]do p[er] mezzo delle mie sta[m]pe sott’il glorioso nome di V. A. Ser.ma stima[n]do che no[n] sdegnarà gradirla rispetto alla qualità dell’Inventore, et alla divotione del donatore: Per ta[n]to la supp.co hum.te che col degnarsi di ricever vole[n]tieri questo picciol dono riceva anco me nella sua procen.ze, e dia animo a le mie debol forze d’inviarlene per lo innanti de maggiori, E con ciò facendole hum.a riverenza, auguro all’Altezza V[ost]ra il compimento d’ogni maggior felicità. Di Roma li x o[tto]bre 1606. D. V. A. Ser.ma Devot.o S.re Filippo Thomassino Intagliatore Franzese.

This is the second state of the Mediterranean Sea chart published by Antonio Lafreri in 1572, modified in the title and in the cartouche, edited by the French publisher Philippe Thomassin in 1606 (see Bifolco-Ronca, 2018, plate 236, II / III before the address of Giacomo de Rossi).

There are no cartographic changes, but the plate is ​​heavily retouched: at the top is added, with larger fonts, a new title added: Navigatione della Europa con Parte della Africa e della Asia.

The cartouche with the title of the Lafreri edition is erased and replaced with a new, larger and decorated one, which is adorned by the Medici coat of arms.

It contains the dedication to Ferdinando de 'Medici (1549 - 1609), second-born of Cosimo I, who renounced the cardinal's purple with papal dispensation when, the sudden death of his brother, made necessary his ascent to the government of the Tuscany, with the name of Ferdinando I. Enlightened sovereign, he supported technical-scientific progress and created grandiose public works such as the reclamation of the Val di Chiana and the strengthening of the port and fortifications of Livorno, making it one of the most active commercial ports in the Mediterranean.

In the dedication to Ferdinando I, Thomassin said: "Hora che me capitato in disegno tutta l’Europa co[n] parte dell’Africa e dell’Asia gia lineate dall’Ecc.te Cosmografo S.r Gio. Home Portughese hò giudiccato darl’ al mo[n]do p[er] mezzo delle mie sta[m]pe sott’il glorioso nome di V. A. Ser.m" (I came into possession of Homen's Mediterranean drawing and wanted to print it under your name).

It is not clear how Thomassin came into possession of the Lafreri plate; we know from the hereditary division that to the nephews Etienne (Stefano) and Claude (Claudio) Duchetti it was up to each one a third and that the remaining third was divided further to then be relocated on the market. Surely the plate does not result from the hereditary inventories of the two grandchildren of Lafreri; it is, instead, present in the inventory of the typography of Philippe Thomassin, written posthumously in the house of the heir Girolama Piscina, 10 April 1627 (see V. Pagani, pp. 251-262).

The only example so far known of this edition is kept at the Utrecht University Library. The chart, of extraordinary rarity, is printed on two sheets of contemporary laid paper (later joined) with filigree "Letter F above three mountains in a shield" (Woodward no. 332, dated to 1602).

Reconstructive restoration at the upper left corner (about 4 cm) and at the lower right edge perfectly executed, overall in excellent condition.

A work of extraordinary rarity and beauty, one of the most important printed chart of the Mediterranea Sea.

Philippe Thomassin (1562 - 1622) was an engraver and editor of Troyes, active in Rome from 1585. In 1589 he began working with Jean Turpin; in the deed of dissolution of 19 January 1602, the company was described as a devotee of the practice of painting and engraving, for the purchase and sale of engravings printed by them or by their order, for retail sale abroad and to the 'wholesale. In 1590 he was arrested and questioned by the Sacro Ufficio for a portrait of Henry IV of France that he would have engraved. In his early years in Rome he worked for publishers such as Claudio Duchetti, Lorenzo Vaccari and Marcello Clodio. In 1588 he began to publish his works. He bought old plates, among which, in 1599, a group from the heirs of Aliprando Caprioli, requesting a 10-year privilege from Pope Clement VIII.

Bibliografia: S. Bifolco - F. Ronca, Cartografia e topografia italiana del XVI secolo. Catalogo ragionato delle opere e stampa, Roma, 2018, pp. 704-705, tav. 236 II/III; cfr. M. Destombes, Une carte inedited de Diego Homem, ca. 1566, in “Rivista de Universidade de Coimbra” n. 24, p. 5-15, 1970; cfr. P. H. Meurer, The Strabo Illustratus Atlas. A unique sixteenth century composite atlas from the House of Bertelli in Venice, Bedburg-Hau 2002, n. 3; V. Pagani, Philippe Thomassin’s Engraved Plates after 1602, in “Print Quarterly” XXXIII, pp. 251-262, Londra 2016, n. 62; G. Schilder, Early Dutch Maritime Cartography. The North Holland School of Cartography (c. 1580-1620), Leida-Boston, 2017, pp. 208-211, ill. 6.14.