Italy - Calabria Cosenza, Pollino and Sila, rivers (Crati, Coscile, Neto, etc.), Cassano, Rossano,; Antonio Zatta - Calabria Citeriore 1793 - 1781-1800

Ancient Map
Ancient geographical chart “Calabria Citeriore”
Antonio Zatta, Venice 1793
(from the maps of Mr. Rizzi Zannoni)

Engraving on copper with contemporary coloring of the outlines and the reliefs, on antique laid paper.

Sheet size: about 47 × 35.5 cm.
The map depicts the whole of Calabria Citeriore (the present Province of Cosenza and surrounding areas), with exceptional topographic detail: the Pollino and Sila mountain ranges, rivers (Crati, Coscile, Neto, etc.), inhabited centers (Cosenza, Cassano, Rossano, Castrovillari, Amantea and hundreds of villages), roads, ports and borders with Basilicata and Puglia.

The mountainous relief is rendered in a picturesque and accurate manner. In the upper right, an elegant architectural-landscape cartouche with ruins (aqueduct) and vegetation, containing the title and edition data: “Calabria Citeriore tratta dalle Carte del Sig.r Rizzi Zannoni – Venezia 1793 – Presso Antonio Zatta”.

Work by Antonio Zatta (Venice 1722-1804), the most important Venetian publisher and cartographer of the second half of the eighteenth century, drawn from the famous Novissimo Atlante. The cartographic base derives from the scientific surveys of Giovanni Antonio Rizzi Zannoni, royal geographer of the Kingdom of Naples and author of one of the most precise and innovative cartographies of southern Italy in the eighteenth century.

Zatta’s maps based on Rizzi Zannoni represent a pivotal bridge between Baroque cartography and modern Enlightenment cartography: they combine geodetic precision with high aesthetic quality (original coloring and decorative cartouches).

Loose copies of this plate, especially dating to 1793 and in good condition, are sought after and not common on the antiquarian market, particularly appreciated by collectors of Italian regional cartography and Calabrian history.

Excellent testimony of late eighteenth-century Venetian cartography and a precious document for the historical topography of northern Calabria.