HISPANIAE nova descriptio

In the ornate cartouche at the bottom right, we find the title: HISPANIAE nova descriptio. In the smallest cartouche at the bottom left we find the metric scales: Scala di Miglia Italiane 90 (90 miles, equal to 50 mm) and Scala leucarum 30 (30 leagues, equal to 60 mm). Orientation in the four sides in the center with the name of the cardinal points: Septentrio, Meridies, Oriens, Occidens, north is at the top. Graduation in the margins of 10' in 10', from 34° 30' to 44° 42' of latitude and from 10° to 26° 12' (from 9° 10' to 26° 55' top side) of longitude.

Anonymous map, without date and editorial indications. It is a faithful derivation of the Regni Hispaniae Postomnivm Editiones Locvpletissima Descriptio by Abraham Ortelius published for the first time in Antwerp in 1570. Although unsigned, the map is attributed to the typography of Matteo Florimi. The plate appears engraved by the Flemish engraver Arnoldo di Arnoldi, who was already working for Giovanni Antonio Magini. The period of collaboration between Florimi and Arnoldi can be traced back to the years 1600-1602 and he produced a fair number of maps.

Etching and engraving, printed on contemporary laid paper with illegible watermark, trimmed to the borderline, minimal abrasions along the central fold visible on verso, otherwise in excellent condition.

Very rare work, registered for only 5 institutional examples according Bifolco-Ronca (cf. Cartografia e Topografia Italiana del XVI secolo, p. 1194).

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. 470; H.A.M. van der Heijden, Matteo Florimi (+1613) – Landkarten und Stadtplanverleger in Siena, in “Florilegium Cartographicum”, Lipsia (1993): n. 9; Hernando Rica (1995): p. 79.