Sevilla

At the top center, under the upper edge, the title is engraved: SEVILLA. In the lower part of the plate we find a numerical legend, arranged in eight columns, of 59 references to notable places and monuments. The editorial imprint follows: Matteo florimi formis.

It is a slightly reduced size replica of the perspective plan engraved by Ambrogio Brambilla for the publisher Pietro de Nobili, dedicated to Enrique de Guzmán (1585). The numerical legend, of 59 references, is identical. Florimi probably created the plan after the ten-year privilege of his prototype expired in 1595.

The “perspective plan of the city engraved by Ambrogio Brambilla for the publisher Pietro de Nobili is dedicated to Enrique de Guzmán y Ribera (1540-1607), second count of Olivares and viceroy of Naples from 1595 to 1599. In 1585 de Guzmán was at Rome, as ambassador of Spain. The work obtained the ten-year papal privilege of printing. This image of the city and its surroundings, whose cartographic sources are unknown, but which could however have a close connection with de Guzman himself, was the basis of the one published in the fourth volume of Civitates Orbis Terrarum, edited by Braun and Hogenberg, in 1588. Both representations of the city of Seville reveal a strong cartographic character, with an almost unreal use of perspective. The organization and alignment of the streets and places do not respond to a real projective interest but convey the idea of urban unity and integrity, reinforced by the presence of the Guadalquivir river. Next to the Spanish royal coat of arms and the insignia of the city of Seville appears the coat of arms of the ducal house of Medina Sidonia, to which the de Guzman family boasted of belonging" (cf. Cartografia e Topografia Italiana del XVI secolo, p. 1154).

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 visible from verso, otherwise in good condition.

Rare work, recorded for only 7 institutional examples according Bifolco-Ronca (cf. Cartografia e Topografia Italiana del XVI secolo, p. 1156).

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. 487; Elisa Boffa, Un tipografo calabrese a Siena: Matteo Florimi, in “Accademia dei Rozzi” (2013): II, n. 27; H.A.M. van der Heijden, Matteo Florimi (+1613) – Landkarten und Stadtplanverleger in Siena, in “Florilegium Cartographicum”, Lipsia (1993): n. 42.