LA CITTA DI NAPOLI GENTILE

At the top center, under the upper edge, we find the title: LA CITTA DI NAPOLI GENTILE. A numerical legend of 75 references to notable places and monuments is engraved along the lower edge, distributed over thirteen columns. The editorial imprint follows in the last box: Matteo Florimj for. Jn Siena. In the center of the map, in the sea, a schematic wind rose; north-northeast is to the right.

Matteo Florimi's map of the city of Naples is, as usual for the publisher active in Siena, a faithful counterfeit of an antecedent product. In this case, of Mario Cartaro's map of 1579 and not of Duchetti's later one, as demonstrated by the 75 references in the key-legend, identical to Cartaro's and not to Duchetti's, which has 77. Florimi limits himself only to changing the graphic design of the map, conforming it to the new figurative models that were spreading in the early seventeenth century. Moreover, the engraving of the plate is attributed to Arnold van Scherpenseel, better known with the Italianized name of Arnoldo di Arnoldi, a close collaborator of Florimi for a short period (1600-1602).

The map is a faithful derivation of that of Mario Cartaro: “it is the first Roman replica of the Duperac-Lafreri map of 1566, of which a very faithful reduction results which prompts Valerio, on the basis of the measurements of the two maps, even to hypothesize the use of a pantograph or similar reduction tool. Cartaro, moreover, had the opportunity to examine Lafreri's stock when he was appointed expert for the hereditary division of the plates after the death of the publisher (1577). However, Cartaro's work is not limited to copying the Lafreri model, as it’s updated with some urban changes. In fact, the sheds of the new arsenal are represented, the work on which had begun in 1577; moreover, the new buildings dedicated to the Spanish troops that rose at the foot of San Martino are more complete here than in the original model. It is the first map to show in the title the adjective “gentile” (kind), with which the fifteenth-century chronicler Loise De Rosa qualified Naples. The “gentile” qualification is the most current in the Aragonese era among those reserved for the city: “large, noble and beautiful” (cf. Cartografia e Topografia Italiana del XVI secolo, p. 1796). 

Etching and engraving, printed on contemporary laid paper with "eagle in circle with crown" watermark (similar to Woodward n. 64), with margins, restorations in the central fold, otherwise in good condition.

Rare work, recorded for only 10 institutional examples according Bifolco-Ronca (cf. Cartografia e Topografia Italiana del XVI secolo, p. 2258).

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. 1159; Elisa Boffa, Un tipografo calabrese a Siena: Matteo Florimi, in “Accademia dei Rozzi” (2013): II, n. 15; H.A.M. van der Heijden, Matteo Florimi (+1613) – Landkarten und Stadtplanverleger in Siena, in “Florilegium Cartographicum”, Lipsia (1993): n. 32; Bellucci-Valerio (2007): n. 1; Pane-Valerio (1988): pp. 85-86, n. 23.