This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/21/2024
[THE VATICAN MAPS]. [GAMBI, Lucio and PINELLI, Antonio, editors]. La Galleria delle Carte geografiche in Vaticano. The Gallery of Maps in the Vatican. [Modena]: Franco Cosimo Panini, [1993-94]. Large 4tos. 4 volumes, one text volume, one atlas volume, portfolio of 40 folded facsimiles of maps in color, one index volume. 612 pp. (795 color illustrations); 511 pp. (120 black and white illustrations); 50 pp. Text volume, atlas, and portfolio bound uniformly in full black cloth, front boards and spines stamped in gilt, pictorial endleaves, publisher’s black cloth slipcase stamped in gilt with pictorial labels, index volume in stapled wrappers (some occasional minor rubbing, ffep of atlas volume a bit scuffed, some occasional thumbsoiling to folded facsimiles of maps). Fine. MIXED EDITION (first edition of text volume, second edition of atlas). From the Mirabilia Italiæ series. “Edited by L.Gambi, A.Pinelli. Essays by A.Chiggiato, R.Ferri, L.Gambi, C.Franzoni, P.Liverani, M.Milanesi, A.Pinelli, F.Prontera, Commissioned by Pope Gregory XIII, completed in 1580 under the direction of the geographer Egnazio Danti, the Gallery of Geographical Maps in the Vatican is the largest pictorial cycle of cartographic figures in the world and one of the most extraordinary artistic enterprises of the late sixteenth century. One hundred and twenty meters long and six meters wide, it includes forty fresco panels depicting the Italian regions, the large port cities and some smaller islands, while the ceiling is painted with a cycle of miracles and edifying scenes linked to the localities below, composed of 51 scenes. The picture that emerges from the cartographic cycle of the Gallery is that of Italy at the end of the sixteenth century. A political reality still heterogeneous but also a geographical and conceptual entity already precociously unitary, cemented and unified, as the designated homeland of the Church, by a providential vision of history.” (Publisher’s website).