Italy - Modena, Reggio, Mirandola, Novellara, Garfagnana, Massa-Carrara, Emilia, Parma, Bologna, Toscana,; Antonio Zatta - GLI STATI DI MODENA Parte della Repubblica Cispadana 1797 - 1781-1800

Old map

THE STATES OF MODENA
Part of the Cispadane Republic
Of new projection.
Venice, at Antonio Zatta, 1797.

Copper-plate engraving with-era watercolor (original colors hand-applied), with a fine decorative cartouche at the bottom right depicting a small rustic building (church or chapel) with a tower, trees and landscape.

Sheet size: about 465 x 355 mm.

The map depicts the ancient Estense States of Modena (Duchy of Modena, Reggio, Mirandola, County of Novellara, etc.) at the moment when, after the French occupation, they merged into the brief Cispadane Republic (1796-1797). The principal territorial divisions are highlighted with different colors: the Modena-Reggio heart in pink/purple, the Mirandola and Finale area in green, Garfagnana and Massa-Carrara in yellow, and the borders with the surrounding territories (Parma, Bologna, Tuscany, Duchy of Guastalla). Detailed hydrographic network (Po, Secchia, Panaro, Enza), the inhabited centers (Modena, Reggio, Carpi, Correggio, Mirandola, Sassuolo, Pavullo, etc.), the Apennine lakes (Scaffaiolo, Pratignano) and minor toponymy. At the top there is the scale in common Italian miles.

This is one of the very rare contemporary maps documenting the Cispadane Republic, the state born in 1796-97 from the union of Modena, Reggio, Bologna and Ferrara under Napoleonic auspices and destined to last only a few months (dissolved and absorbed into the Cisalpine Republic by July 1797).

It is the updated reissue (second state) of the plate originally published by Zatta in the Atlante Novissimo (circa 1783), with the title altered to reflect the new political reality. Together with the twin sheet of the Ferrarese and Bolognese, it constitutes the only cartography of the Cispadane made at that time that is specific to this republic.

The map thus fixes a moment in history that is extremely fleeting and of great interest for the history of the Risorgimento and of the Italian Jacobin republics: the old names of duchies and counties coexist with the new republican denomination, before the reorganization into departments.

A visually striking exemplar, with fresh period coloring and a decorative cartouche typical of Zatta’s productions. A Venetian publication by one of the most important Italian cartographic editors of the late eighteenth century.

Condition: see photos. Watermarked paper of the period, editorial folds and normal signs of time.

Bibliographic references: Sanfelici-Zanasi, Terre di Langobardia, 138; Arrigoni-Bertarelli; Tooley.