Dominio Fiorentino

At lower right, in an ornate cartouche, is printed the title: DOMINIO FIORENTINO. At lower left is the editorial imprint: Matteo Florimi for. Jn Siena. In the upper left, in an ornate border box, is depicted the Scale of Mile 20 (20 miles = mm 63). Orientation in the four sides in the center with the names of the cardinal points: SEPTENTRION, MERIDIES, ORIENS, OCCIDENS, north being at the top. Graduation in the margins of 1' in 1', from 41° 49' to 43° 43' latitude and from 32° 11' to 35° 37' longitude.

Map of the territory of Florence edited in Siena by Matteo Florimi. This is a replica, or more correctly a forgery, of Giovanni Antonio Magini's Dominio Fiorentino. Magini's is itself a derivation of Stefano Bonsignori's map of the Florentine territory. Magini, without ever naming him, describes the Sienese publisher as a shameless counterfeiter: "quidam fortunae meae invidius qui Senis aliorum Geographias depravatim resculpi curat" (Almagià, MCV p. 53). According to Almagià, the engraving of this plate can be attributed to Arnoldo de Arnoldi.

Etching and engraving, printed on contemporary laid virgin paper with watermark "letter PC in a circle with flower," with margins, paper slightly browned, otherwise in excellent condition.

Rare work, surveyed for only 11 institutional examples according Bifolco-Ronca (see Cartografia e Topografia Italiana del XVI secolo,  p. 1994).

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. 1000; Elisa Boffa, Un tipografo calabrese a Siena: Matteo Florimi, in “Accademia dei Rozzi” (2013): II, n. 7; H.A.M. van der Heijden, Matteo Florimi (+1613) – Landkarten und Stadtplanverleger in Siena, in “Florilegium Cartographicum”, Lipsia (1993): n. 11; Almagià (1948): p. 53; Kinauer (1970): n 32; Shirley (2004): p. 393, n. 41; Bifolco-Ronca (2014): n. 92; Rombai (1993): p. 106.