Pisa

The coat of arms of the Medici family and the coat of arms of the city of Pisa are depicted in the upper left and, in a small cartouche, is engraved the title: PISA. In the upper right box are the LUOGHI NOTABILI, a numerical legend of 91 cross-references, divided into two columns. It is followed, again within the frame, by the signature ACHILLE SOLI PITORE FECIT. Engraved at lower right is the editorial imprint: Matteo florimi formis Siena.

Map of the city drawn by Achille Soli, printed in Siena by Matteo Florimi. The plan is the first true portrait of the city, a model for all subsequent works. In the upper left corner is the Medici coat of arms and the Pisan cross. The common buildings are rendered in a simple undifferentiated form, but even the most important buildings (e.g., the grand ducal palace) and churches are represented roughly or even incorrectly, and often with the front elevations turned toward the viewer. The dating of the plate has been assigned between 1603, the year in which the canopy of the Sostegno was built on the Navicelli Canal - which is depicted in the plan and is a sure terminus post quem - and 1607, the year in which Giovanni Orlandi made a printed copy. Achille Soli may also have been the author of the copperplate carving, but it is also likely that the engraving was made within the Sienese workshop of Matteo Florimi.

Etching and engraving, impressed on contemporary laid paper with watermark "double circle and fleur-de-lis with letter V" (Woodward no. 111, date to about 1613), trimmed to copperplate and with contemporary margins added, perfectly executed restorations to the four corners, overall in excellent condition.

Rare work, surveyed for only 13 institutional according Bifolco-Ronca (see Cartografia e Topografia Italiana del XVI secolo, p. 2310).

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. 1190; Elisa Boffa, Un tipografo calabrese a Siena: Matteo Florimi, in “Accademia dei Rozzi” (2013): II, n. 24; H.A.M. van der Heijden, Matteo Florimi (+1613) – Landkarten und Stadtplanverleger in Siena, in “Florilegium Cartographicum”, Lipsia (1993): n. 40; Benevolo (1969): pp. 95-98, tav. XXII; Bernardini (1991): p. 92, n. 13; Cai (2004): p. 30, n. 10; Martinelli-Rupi (1997): p. 38; Nuti (1984): p. 25; Zampieri (2002): pp. 268-270.