Carte dei quattro continenti

- EARLY ISSUE, UNRECORDED - Suite depicting the 4 continents, finely etched with etching and engraving, dating to 1590/95 approx. The map of Asia is signed in the plate, lower left. Magnificent proofs, rich tones, printed on contemporary laid paper with watermark "still in a circle surmounted by flower" with the countermark (Briquet 571, 178 Woodward), wide margins, in perfect condition

The maps, according to Philip Burden and Richard Betz, can be dated back to 1605 and are clearly derived from that published in the Universale Fabrica del Mondo by Giovanni Lorenzo Anania, Venice 1582. They differ mainly in size and scale of gradation.

However, we would disagree on the dating attributed by Burden and Betz, considering these works of Rosaccio dating from the period 1590/95. The maps were in fact accompanied by a map of the world that includes Rodney Shirley among those added to the new reissue of The Mapping of the World, listing only known specimen, which is located in the Municipal Library of Grenoble. Shirley dated the map at the last decade of the sixteenth century.

At the conclusion of the study of this unusual maps, we can that describe this set is a first issue of Rosaccio’s maps later incorporated in his "Geographia" and also in the Relationi Universali by Botero. The works, probably made in a few examples, were never included in any publication, and are on uncut sheets, with full margins, printed on paper with a watermark that indicates Briquet manufactured in Verona around 1583, and Woodward found in other maps of the period 1580 to 1594. There are also different sizes of plates, but this is probably because scholars have found to examine specimens trimmed in copper.

Homogeneous set of extraordinary rarity.