Italy - Ferrara. Emilia-Romagna; F. Bertelli - Ferrara - 1629

Technical sheet

Title: Ferrara – Perspective plan of the fortified city
Author: Pietro Bertelli
Publisher: Francesco Bertelli
Place: Padua
Era / Date: 1629
Technique: copper engraving with etching on copper
Support: antique laid paper; typographic text in Italian on the verso
Edition: third impression of Theatro delle città d’Italia with its plates engraved in copper, & descriptions of them, enlarged with new figures and descriptions
Dimensions: sheet about 20.5 × 14.5 cm; impression of the engraving about 17.5 × 12.5 cm
Composition: one sheet; perspective plan of Ferrara on the recto and typographic text dedicated to Reggio Emilia on the verso, page 157, printer’s mark O2

Description

Perspective plan of Ferrara published in Padua in 1629 by Francesco Bertelli in the third edition of Pietro Bertelli’s Theatro delle città d’Italia. The view reproduces the urban and defensive layout of the city in the first half of the seventeenth century, observed from an oblique perspective that combines cartographic representation with architectural description.

Ferrara is depicted fully enclosed within the powerful bastioned enceinte. The street grid, urban blocks, green areas and the main religious and civil buildings are described with a minute and analytical mark. In the center of the composition the Estense Castle emerges, recognizable by its quadrangular plan, angular towers and the moat that separates it from the city fabric.

In the lower part the course of the Po di Volano is shown, crossed by bridges and animated by boats. The large pentagonal Papal Fortress, erected at the beginning of the seventeenth century in the southwestern area of the city and here integrated into the urban fortifications system, is given particular emphasis. Also noted are some of the main city gates, among which Porta degli Angeli, Porta San Giovanni Battista, Porta San Paolo and Porta di San Pietro.

The name FERRARA is arranged along the upper margin of the view. In the upper right corner appears the Papal coat of arms, surmounted by the tiara and accompanied by the crossed keys, reference to the city’s transition under the direct governance of the State of the Church after the 1598 devolvement.

The plate preserves on the verso the original typographic text dedicated to Reggio Emilia, titled REGGIO and numbered 157. The presence of the typographic reference «FER-» heralds the Ferrara section and documents the original editorial placement of the sheet.

Historical-artistic note

Pietro Bertelli was a publisher, engraver and cartographer active from the late sixteenth to the early seventeenth century. His Theatro delle città d’Italia fits into the successful editorial tradition of city books, works in which views and perspective plans were accompanied by texts devoted to the history, geography and peculiarities of the represented centers.

The third edition, published in Padua in 1629 by his son Francesco Bertelli, expanded the previous illustrative apparatus with new plates and descriptions. The Ferrara plan is of particular documentary interest because it records the city’s conformation after the devolvement to the Pontifical State and includes the great fortress built from 1608 by the will of Pope Paul V.

The work thus constitutes a significant testimony of Italian urban cartography of the early seventeenth century, in which topographic precision combines with the visual immediacy of the perspective view.

Condition Report

Print on antique laid paper, with the original typographic text on the verso. Sharp and legible impression, with good definition of the urban fabric and fortifications.

The sheet shows a natural and uniform paper oxidation, slight warping and some small stains and traces of time concentrated mainly at the margins. Minor marginal irregularities and a pencil note in the lower left corner. Margins preserved. Overall good condition for its age.