Saturday, June 12, 2010

Carte Geografiche

Venetia - map of Venice


Budova


Cataro


Famagosta


Forte di Barbagno


Fortezza di Santa Maria de Tremiti - map of Tremiti island, Italy


Lango - map of Kos, Greece


Metileme - map of Mytilene, Greece


Napoli de Romania - map of Napflion, Greece


Negroponte - map of Chalkis, Euboea, Greece


Nicosia


Rodi - map of Rhodes


Scardona - map of Skradin, Croatia


Stampalia - map of Astipalea, Greece


Scharpanto - map of Karpathos, Greece


Tine - map of Tinos


Zarra - map of Zadar, Croatia


Constantinopoli - 16th century map of Istanbul


Giacomo (Jacomo) Franco (1550-1620) spent his whole life in Venice where he worked as a cartographic engraver and publisher in the family business. Although there is scant background material online, evidence for his mapmaking competence can be inferred from the noted cartographer Abraham Ortelius having relied on a Franco map as a reference source.

The array of hand-coloured engravings seen above are from a (presumably) draft collection of illustrations engraved by Franco in 1597 that would be formally published the following year. The book in which they would appear -- 'Viaggio da Venetia a Constantinopoli per Mare' (Voyage from Venice to Istanbul by Sea) -- was ostensibly a navigational guide that saw a number of editions. The accompanying text was supplied by the humanist cartographer Giuseppe Rosaccio and included economic, historical and travel-related details in addition to the navigational notes.

The Viaggio plates (64 in the informal 'Carte Geografiche' suite) depict all the major cities, islands and visible landmarks along the recommended sailing route through the Adriatic, Ionian, Mediterranean and Aegean Seas [map].


Croatia's National and University Library in Zagreb host the 'Carte Geografiche' -- click on the image to launch the painless flash interface or the inside margin list for small images of Croatian towns. All the images above are screencaps: the first and last depict Venice and Istanbul respectively, but the rest are probably out of order.

Previously: cartography

6 comments :

aetherea said...

Beautiful! Google Maps doesn't have a hope...

peacay said...

(Oops...here's a comment I accidentally deleted. Thanks George!):


George said:

Interesting stuff! I recently came across a podcast that seems to resonate with these images. The Canadian Broadcast Corporation's (CBC) program Ideas is running a series called "Making Publics". One of the episodes addressed the importance of maps for Early Modern Venice. Books of Turkish costumes even get a mention! The show's description is available on the CBC site and the Making Publics website links to the podcast.

jhi said...

Here are the places between Venetia and Constantinopoli with modern names. I had Wikipedia and Google Maps ready too, but they made the post too long.

Fortezza di Santa Maria di Tremiti: Isole Tremiti, Italia

Lango: Kos, Greece

Metileme: Mytilene, Greece

Napoli de Romania: Napflion, Greece

Negroponte: Chalkis, Euboea, Greece

Nicosia: Nicosia, Cyprus

Rodi: Rhodes, Greece

Scardona: Skradin, Croatia

Stampalia: Astipalea, Greece

Scharpanto: Karpathos, Greece

Tine: Tinos

Zarra: Zadar, Croatia

peacay said...

Good on you jhi! I had been thinking of doing that (and it was going to be difficult: I'm fairly ignorant about that part of the world) but had to go out so I just posted it as-is.

Unknown said...

Brilliant, beautiful post (as always) Thank you so much, you made my day!

Mark Jasper said...

These are amazing! There's currently a map exhibition at the British library that's worth a look.

Post a Comment

Comments are all moderated so don't waste your time spamming: they will never show up.

If you include ANY links that aren't pertinent to the blog post or discussion they will be deleted and a rash will break out in your underwear.

Also: please play the ball and not the person.

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.

 
Creative Commons License