Syracusae Antiquae Delineatio Juxta Mentem

Perspective plan of ancient Syracuse, based on the work of Vincenzo Mirabella Alagona.

Example taken from "Thesaurus Antiquitatum et Historiarum Italiae, Neapolis, Siciliae Sardiniaae, Corsicae and Melitae," a monumental work by Georgius Graevius published in the first quarter of the 18th century.

Vincenzo Mirabella Alagona (Syracuse, 1570 - Modica, 1624) was an Italian historian, archaeologist and architect, best known for his work Pianta dell'Antiche Siracuse.

The first publication of the Pianta delle antiche Siracuse, that of 1613, soon sold out. It was reprinted again in Palermo in 1717 under the title Descrizione delle quattro città dell'Antica Siracusa in the volume edited by Giovan Battista Aiccardo. Another edition of the map is that contained in the Thesaurus Antiquitatum et Historiarum Siciliae by Giovanni Giorgio Graevio edited by Vander Aa in 1725 in Lugduni Batavorum (Leiden).

Between 1704 and 1725 the 45 volumes of the "Thesaurus antiquitatum" were printed in Leiden, a complex, laborious generation, extolled by some as extraordinary, criticized, on the other hand, by others, who spoke of it as a "compilation énorme sans choix e sans ordre." A project that concerned contemporaries a great deal, in Italy, but interested little historiography afterwards, which, except in rare cases, emphasized its merely scholarly character and substantial uselessness.

However, Graevius' work is enriched by the valuable plates signed by Dutch publisher Pieter Vander AA.

Etching, finely hand-colored, in excellent condition.