Palermo

In the upper center, below the top border, we find the title: PALERMO. The cartouche in the upper left-hand corner reads: PALERMO Citta principaliss.a nella Sicilia dotata non sola dalla fertilità, et vaghezza naturale del sito, ma d’un sicurissimo porto, aiutato dall’arte; di edificij stupendi, tanto publici come privati, et d’altre cose notabili, che si rechiedeno per imbellire ogni simil gran città. Nel cartiglio in alto a destra, sormontato dallo stemma della città, si legge: Quod solide hoc Regnum nunc regaliq[ue] columne Here, quisq[ue] potest tutam traducere vitam; Ac cum Trinacria aeterno q[uam] foecedere iuncta est Roma et seclorum stabili sie lege fatendum Haectenus ut felix sit terq[ue] quaterque beata Urbs hec, Barbaricas Romano et principe ge[n]tes Comprinat, et claro Regnum de sanguine natus Vexillo insignis Christi, Dux, atque triumpho ingressus patriam renovavit Secla Quirinj 28.

Along the lower margin is engraved a numerical key-legend of 128 references to places and monuments, spread over fifteen columns. Editorial imprint follows: Matteo Florimj forma In Siena.

Orientation by a wind rose in the sea, the northwest is to the right.

Florimi's axonometric plan of Palermo is a derivation of Maiocchi's model. Drawn by Orazio Maiocchi and engraved by Natale Bonifacio, the map is published in Rome by Claudio Duchetti is the first printed plan of the city of Palermo. The axonometric projection adopted is derived from a model already known through an older manuscript plan of the city; this approach will be extraordinarily successful and will be maintained in all subsequent plans until 1832.

Both the descriptive text contained in the two cartouches and the legend at the bottom are copied from the original model. From the number of cross-references in the bottom legend,128, it is evident that Florimi was not familiar with Mario Cartaro's plan, expanded in the legend to as many as 162 cross-references.

Etching and engraving, printed on contemporary laid paper with an illegible watermark (a circle), trimmed with copperplate, traces of glue on verso, otherwise in excellent condition.

Rare work, surveyed for only 12 institutional examples according Bifolco-Ronca (see Cartografia e Topografia Italiana del XVI secolo, p. 2280).

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. 1170; Elisa Boffa, Un tipografo calabrese a Siena: Matteo Florimi, in “Accademia dei Rozzi” (2013): II, n. 18; H.A.M. van der Heijden, Matteo Florimi (+1613) – Landkarten und Stadtplanverleger in Siena, in “Florilegium Cartographicum”, Lipsia (1993): n. 34; Barbera Azzarello (1980): vol. 1, n. 13 e vol. 2, tav. 13.