Descriptio Illius Italiae partis cujus oram maritimam Graeci...

Descriptio illius Italiae partis cujus oram maritimam graeci olim incoluerunt expressa ad effigiem Italiae veteris quam Dominus Islaeus in aes incisam vulgaverat: nunc tamen locis aliquot ad auctorum veterum fidem castigata.

Manuscript map, made in brown ink on paper, depicting the southern part of the peninsula, the ancient Magna Graecia.

Most likely it is the preparatory drawing for the map of Magna Graecia, engraved by Francesco Sesone, contained in Mazochius Alexius Symmachus, Commentariorum in Regii Herculanensis Musei Aeneas Tabulas Heracleenses, Neapoli, ex Officina Benedicti Gessari, 1754. Important treatise of epigraphy relative to the bronze tables of Heraclea datable between the end of the IV and the beginnings of the III century B.C. Discovered in the shore of a stream between 1732 and 1735 near Metaponto and later received by Charles III of Bourbon and now collected in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. The dimensions of the copper paper (34.3 x 25 cm) are almost identical to this manuscript, which we therefore attribute to the hand of the engraver Sesone.

As stated in the cartouche with the title, the purpose of this cartography is to provide an image of southern Italy, with the populations a couple of centuries before Christ, at the time of the Roman occupation. All place names, in Latin, refer to the most developed cities of the time, as well as the territorial subdivision respects the organization of Rome.

Magna Grecia is the geographical area of the Italian Mediterranean peninsula that was anciently colonized by the Greeks from the eighth century BC.

After the colonization of the Aegean Sea, between the tenth and eighth centuries BC, people of Greek origin (merchants, farmers, ranchers, artisans) appeared in the southern part of Italy. Over time, the new cities, for political reasons, overpopulation, trade and control of the territory, expanded their presence in Italy, waging bloody wars with local populations, especially in an attempt to conquer today's Puglia, with Salentini, Peucezi and Messapi. The arrival of the Roman legions between 290 and 280 B.C., in the Tarantine War, sanctioned the passage under the protection of Rome of all the Greek cities of the Italian peninsula.

Francesco Sesone, together with Francesco Cepparuli, was one of the most industrious engravers in 18th century Naples, producing a large number of plates for books on archaeology. Giovanni Gori Gandellini says of Sesone: "Roman, attended the profession of engraver under the direction of Giorlamo Frezza. He did not leave to bring back in print many works of talented men with an admirable sweetness and with great vagueness. He lived in Naples in 1733 with great fame at the age of 28 years [...] He was not a novice, and this is demonstrated by the work done even before '40: with Ricciardi had engraved, designed by Ferdinando Sanfelice, a table for a celebratory text, and others for a work of Thomas Salmon very popular in those years.

Probably those collaborations gave him the opportunity to work for the Antichità di Ercolano Esposte (1755-1771) by Ottavio Antonio Baiardi. Sesone also played an important role in the illustration of the Neapolitan edition of Thomas Salmon's work, Lo stato presente di tutti i paesi e popoli del mondo naturale, politico e morale con nuove osservazioni degli antichi e modemi viaggiatori, in Naples, by Francesco Ricciardo, 1738. The work, in 24 tomes, was printed, starting from the 18th, by Vincenzo Mazzola and Angelo Vocola; Ricciardi printed it from 1738 to 1753, and Sesone engraved the antiporta of the frontispiece of twelve of the seventeen tomes and as many as 66 cartographic and typographic engravings of different formats.

Bibliografia

cfr. Georg Rathgeber, Grossgriechenland und Pythagoras, p. 31; Brunet III, 1561; Lozzi I, 1478; Platneriana, p. 123; Cicognara, 2682; G. Gori Gandellini, Notizie istoriche degl'intagliatori, tomo III, p. 233.