Italy - Romagna: Northern Italy, Emilia-Romagna, the southern part of Lombardy, northern Tuscany; Gerard Mercator - Romandiola cum Parmensi Ducatu - 1621-1650

Old copper-engraved map of Romagna and the duchy of Parma by Mercator, hand-colored, published in 1633 in the Mercator-Hondius atlas.

It shows Romagna, the duchies of Parma, Mantua, Ferrara and Modena, as well as the territories of Bologna, Piacenza and Cremona. To the south, the map extends as far as Florence, Pisa and Lucca, and the Ligurian coast to the Cinque Terre. The Apennines occupy the center in perspectival relief, and the Po delta, the lagoons of Comacchio and the Adriatic outline its east. A large cartouche with scrollwork, adorned with a mascaron, bears the title at the bottom right. A scale compass (Miliaria Italica communia) appears at the bottom left, near Mercator’s signature. The sea is shown with dotted lines, and the degrees of latitude and longitude are graduated in the border.

- Dimensions: on sheet: 56 x 47.5 cm; on the map plate: 46.9 x 35.3 cm
- Condition: Good overall condition for a map of this age. Presence of a central vertical fold, light soiling, and brown damp stains at the upper margin. See photos for details.

Atlas Mercator-Hondius
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The atlas called “Mercator-Hondius” continues the work of Gerard Mercator, whose copper plates were bought back 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.

Gerard Mercator
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Geographer, mathematician and Flemish cartographer, born in Rupelmonde in 1512 and died in Duisburg in 1594. He studied in Leuven. He is known for his terrestrial and celestial globes, and for his 1569 world map in the cylindrical projection, known as the “Mercator projection.” Based in Duisburg from 1552, he prepared there a large collection of maps. His son Rumold published the complete atlas in 1595, the year after his death. Jodocus Hondius acquired the copper plates in 1604 and issued numerous editions. Those from the 1630s were published in Amsterdam by his heirs.