Ancient maps of Sardinia
SARDINIA INSULA
- Year - 1550
- Title - Sardinia Insula
- Tecnique - xilografia 25,5 cm x 15,5 cm
- Author - Sigismondo Arquer
This geographical map by Sigismondo Arquer from Cagliari together with his short monograph entitled "Sardiniae brevis historia et descriptio per Sigismundum Arquer Caralaritanum" was included for the first time in the Cosmographia of Munster, on plate 234, in the Latin edition of 1550 together with the plan perspective of Cagliari.
Given the great success of Munster's work, numerous editions followed in different languages, including:
- 1552 - Edition in French entitled "Epitome de la Corographie d'Europe illustré des possibilits des villes plus rennomées d'icelle. Mis en françois par Guillame Gueroult. A Lyon, chez Balthazar Arnoullet, MDLII"
- 1554 - Edition in Latin, where the map of Sardinia is still found on plate 234.
- 1558 - First edition in Italian printed in Basel "Six books of universal cosmography".
- 1572 - Italian language edition printed in Basel, with Sardinia on plate 326.
- 1575 - Italian language edition printed in Cologne by Arnoldo Byrkmanno, corrected, as stated on the title page, and purged by the ecclesiastical censors and those of the Catholic King in the Netherlands and by the Inquisitor of Venice. The map of Sardinia is onplate 274.
Arquer's monograph was also included in Antonio Muratori's work "Antiquitates Italiae Medi Evi" printed in Turin in 1738 and precisely in the chapter "Ad Sardiniam spectandes" with the wording "Sardinia auctore Sig.° Arquer" in "Sigismundi Arquer Sardiniae brevis historia descriptio tabula chorographica insula ac metropolis illustrata iuxta editionem cosmographiae Munsteri Basel, an 1558"
SARDINIA
- Year - 1570
- Title - Sardinia
- Tecnique - copper engraving
- Measures - 8 cm x 11 cm
- Author - Frans Hogenberg
This map belongs to what is considered the first true modern atlas, namely the "Theatrum Orbis Terrarum" printed in Antwerp in 1570 by Abraham Ortelio. His atlas included 70 new and original maps by different authors, represented in 53 plates engraved in copper by Frans Hogenberg and all drawn with a uniform criterion.
This work constitutes the first atlas of geographical maps systematically compiled with the collaboration of most geographers of the time, including many Italians, based on the knowledge and results of the latest explorations.
In the atlas, in a separate section entitled "Catalogus Auctorus", Ortelio reported eighty-seven names of cartographers, among which thirty-three appeared as authors of the maps.
Between 1570 and 1612, approximately thirty editions of the atlas were printed in seven different languages, increasingly enriched by numerous maps. The annex to the atlas the "Catalogus Geographorum" or "Catalogus Auctorus" included up to 183 names of cartographers and geographers and the maps reached the number of one hundred and sixty-seven, including the historical maps included in the "Teatrum Orbis Parergon".
The atlas was also published in a pocket edition measuring 205 x 140 mm, including the one published in Venice in 1655 by the Turrini printing house and in 1667 by Scipion Banca, entitled
"Theatre of the world, in which we clearly present, in Tables, all the Provinces, Kingdoms, and Countries of the world; with the description of the cities, territories and castles, mountains, seas, ... Reduced in size but still perfection for greater convenience of travellers. Venetia Per Scipion Banca".
INSULARUM SARDINIAE ET CORSICAE ANTIQUA DESCRIPTIO
- Anno - beginning XVII sec.
- Title - Insularum Sardiniæ et Corsicæ Antiqua Descriptio
- Technique - Hand-watercoloured copper engraving
- Measures - 46 cm x 14 cm
- Author - Abraham Ortelio
This map from Ortelio's charter was included together with another nine islands like Euboea, Chios, Lemnos, Lesbos, Rhodes, Icaria, Samus, etc. in a big map titled "Insular aliquot aliquot Aegaei maris antiqua descrip. ex conatibus geograficas Abrahami Ortely Antuerpiani, sive veteris geographie aliquot tables".
It was published in Amsterdam at the beginning of XVII sec. by Johannes Jansson in a Atlas in the volume "Geographic map of the Sardinia, Insularum Sardiniae et Corsicae Antiqua Scriptio". Sardinia is present, together with the islands of the Egeo on the table 45 of the Atlas "Novus Atlas sive Theatrum orbis Terrorum... in 6 Tomos distinctus" known also with the title "Niew Atlas, ofte Werelt-beschrijnge darsoende de voornameste rijcken ende landen des gheheelen aerdt-bodems...Amstelodami, Apud Joannen Janssonium" published by Jansson in 1657.
In the table 28 there is another charter entitled "A New and Exact Description of the Islands of Sardinia". In a recent book "Imago Sardinia" published by the Consiglio Regionale della Sardegna it is written "...it was part of an atlas of Ortelio, perhaps of a Parergon,...It could also be from the Appendix to the works of Ortelio and Mercator which Jansson published with Jodoco Hondio starting from 1633".
ISOLA DI SARDEGNA
- Year - 1620
- Title - Isola di Sardegna
- Technique - copper engrave
- Measurements - 34 cm x 45 cm
- Author - G.Antonio Magini
This map is taken from Magini's Atlas of Italy in 61 sheets which was published after his death, as can be read in the title of the work, by his son Fabio in 1620.
However, the map had already been circulating for several years before as, as can be read in the scroll at the top left, was dedicated to Cardinal Alessandro Ottaviani de' Medici who in 1605 was no longer a cardinal but had already been elected Pope.
In compiling this map Magini was certainly influenced by the work of Rocco Capellino from 1577.
SARDINIA INSULA
- Year - 1635 - 1650
- Title - Sardinia Insula
- Tecnica - copper engrave
- Measures - 18 cm x 24 cm
- Author - Gerardo Mercatore
This map is found in the first on four pages dedicated to Sardinia entitled "Isle de Sardaigne" of the atlas "Theatrum Orbis Terrarum sive Atlas Novus, Pars tertia" published by Willem and Joannis Blaeu between 1635 and 1650 in numerous editions and different languages (the example reproduced here is taken from a French edition) including the French edition "Nouveau Theater du Monde au Nouvel Atlas" which was published posthumously by his son Willem in Amsterdam in 1645.
The atlas was also the basis of a work that had great success, the famous "Cosmographia Blaviana", born precisely following the various modifications and its expansion.
The map is clearly of Mercatorian origin and is practically identical to the one published in 1589 in Mercator's atlas "Italiae, Sclavoniae et Greciae Tabule Geographice per Gerardum Mercatorem illustrissimi Ducis Julie Clinie et Cosmographum Duysburgi..." unlike its size which is about half.
Under the map, a drop cap opens the detailed description which takes up approximately four pages. In the Mercator maps we note the corrections made compared to the previous maps, including the exact southern orientation of the Gulf of Cagliari and the correct location of the islands of San Pietro and Sant'Antioco on the South Western coast.
ISOLA DI SARDEGNA
- Year - 1662
- Title - Isola di Sardegna
- Technique - copper engrave
- Measures - 38 cm x 49,5 cm
- Author - Joannes Blaeu
This splendid map of Sardinia is taken from the famous Blavian Cosmography by Joannes Blaeu and precisely from the eighth volume entitled "Geographiae Blavianae volumen octavum quo Italia quae est Europae liber decimus sextus continetur", a work which following its great success was published in various languages for over a decade and which came to contain 593 maps and 3000 pages of text.
Blavian Cosmography was certainly born from the elaboration and expansion of the "Theatrum Orbis Terrarum sive Atlas Novus", a work by Joannes' father, the famous cartographer Willem Blaeu. This map shows three seas including the "Tyrrhenian or Lower Sea", the "Sardinian Sea" and the "African Sea", each with their own 32-way wind rose. In the lower left corner, next to a mouflon, an allegorical figure which certainly represents Sardinia holds a sheaf of ears of corn, an olive branch and supports the coat of arms of the four Moors which rests on a large foot.
The Greeks called Sardinia " Sandaliotis" for its shape resembling a foot, taking up the already well-known iconography of Cesare Ripa; the mile scale, bottom right, is supported by a sort of sea monster.
Although the map certainly derives from that of Magini, in this one we note, in addition to some improvements in the toponymy, some important corrections including the exact southern orientation of the Gulf of Cagliari and the correct location of the islands of San Pietro and Sant'Antioco in the South Western coast.
