c1597/8 - An original engraved map titled:" DDESCRITTIONE DI TUTTOL MONDO TERRENA AL PIU MODERNO STILE DEL NOSTRO TEMPO - UNIVERSI ORBIS DESCRIPTIO "
Fascinating oval projection of the World, by the distinguished Italian geographer Giovanni Magini published a quarto edition of Ptolemy beginning in 1596.



This particular world map used the oval projection popularized by Abraham Ortelius, and follows that model very closely. Most notable are the large landmasses of Terra Incognita and Terra Australis at both poles. Six wind-heads are arranged above and below the map. Girolamo Porro engraved the map in 1596 for Magini's edition of Ptolemy's Geographia which appeared in Ptolmey's 'GEOGRAFIA CIOE DESCRITTIONE UNIVERSALE DELLA TERRA' and this being from the 1st Edition in Latin.

Excellent condition measuring approx 19.5cm x 28.5cm with later hand colour.

Giovanni Antonio Magini (1555-1617) was the leading mapmaker of his day working in Italy, author of the first printed atlas devoted to Italy, and also a very important (and rare) wall-map of Italy. Because of the rarity of these works, he is perhaps best known for this edition of Ptolemy, which met both with critical and commercial success, and was reprinted to 1621. Magini’s edition (this being the 1st edition in Italian) is significant for the greatly expanded commentary to the maps that he added. The maps were engraved by Girolamo Porro (1529-1600), the most famous of the Italian map engravers of the period, best known for the island maps in Tomaso Porcacchi’s Isole piu famose del Mondo, 1572, although his work is found in many illustrated books of the period. Porro was praised for the delicacy of his work, despite the handicap of poor vision in one eye.