Italy - Abruzzo, Campania, Molise, southern Lazio: Central and Southern Italy; Gérard Mercator - Italie centrale et méridionale - Gravure sur cuivre, coloris d'époque - Gérard Mercator - Naples - 1621-1650

Ancient copper-engraved map hand-augmented of the Abruzzo and the Terra di Lavoro (Southern Italy) by Mercator, published in 1633 in the Mercator-Hondius atlas.

Here you see the Naples region and the Abruzzi, the Pontine Islands off the Adriatic coast. The relief of the Apennines is drawn in small shaded hatchings, and the Celano Lake can be seen. The towns are marked with a circle, episcopal seats with a small church vignette.
The title is inscribed in a Baroque cartouche adorned with mascarons, fruit garlands, two small animals and two baskets of fruit.
A second cartouche provides the scale in Italian miles.
The seas bear their names in calligraphic letters: “Golfo de Napoli”, “Golfo di Salerno”, “Golfo di Venetia”. The signature “Per Gerardum Mercatorem Cum privilegio” appears at the bottom left.

- Dimensions: on sheet: 56 x 47.5 cm; on the map plate: 46.9 x 35.3 cm
- Condition: Very good overall for a map of this period. Presence of a central vertical fold, light stains, and some browning. See photos for details.

Atlas Mercator-Hondius
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The atlas called “Mercator-Hondius” reuses the work of Gerard Mercator, whose copperplates were reacquired by Jodocus Hondius in 1604. This French edition of 1633 is signed by his son Henricus Hondius and his son-in-law Joannes Janssonius, who augmented it with new maps.

Gérard Mercator
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Gérard Mercator (Gerard de Cremer) was born in 1512 in Rupelmonde (Flanders) and died in 1594 in Duisburg. Trained at the University of Leuven, he worked with Gemma Frisius. He created the 1541 terrestrial globe and the 1551 celestial globe, then a map of Europe in 1554. Settled in Duisburg, in 1569 he presented his world map on a conformal cylindrical projection, still in use today. His atlas appeared in parts (1585, 1589), then completed in 1595, published after his death by his son Rumold. Jodocus Hondius acquired the copperplates in 1604, and the atlas was reissued in many editions, including that of 1633.