Italy - Pozzuoli, Phlegraean Fields, Naples, Campania; Pflaumern - Sinus Puteolanus - 1650

Technical sheet

Subject / Title: Sinus Puteolanus; perspective view of the Gulf of Pozzuoli and the Phlegraean Fields.
Author of the provenance work: Johann Heinrich von Pflaumern (1585–1671).
Engraver: Wolfgang Kilian.
Designer: not indicated on the plate.
Publisher / Printer: Georg Wildeisen, publisher in Ulm; Johann Praetorius, printer in Augsburg.
Place: Augusta Vindelicorum, today Augsburg, Germany.
Era / Date: 1650, provenance edition.
Technique: copperplate engraving on copper, mainly intaglio with burin, with manually applied period coloring not verified.
Support: handmade laid paper.
Dimensions: sheet 16 × 19.5 cm; plate impression 15.5 × 18.5 cm.
Composition: single fold-out plate, taken from the Mercurius Italicus; numbered legend from 1 to 42 along the lower margin.
Verso: blank.

Description

Copper-engraved topographic map depicting the Gulf of Pozzuoli and the Phlegraean Fields, drawn from the 1650 edition of Johann Heinrich von Pflaumern’s Mercurius Italicus.
The representation combines a bird’s-eye view with cartographic and vedutist elements: the coastline profile, volcanic features, lakes, settlements and testimonies of antiquity are gathered in a composition of considerable descriptive density. Pozzuoli, Baia and the promontory of Miseno are the main references of the coastal area; Nisída, Procida and part of Ischia also appear.
A legend of forty-two entries identifies monuments, localities and natural phenomena, including Pozzuoli’s cave, Virgil’s tomb, Lake Agnano, the Cave of the Dog, the Solfatara, the Pozzuoli amphitheater, Monte Nuovo, the Mirabilis Pool and Lake Averno. The plate thus documents the seventeenth-century interest in a territory where classical memory, volcanic landscape and antiquarian tradition were closely linked.
The sea, rendered by dense stippling, is animated by sailing ships and by an ornate sea creature. A compass rose completes the cartographic apparatus. The manual coloring distinguishes the waters, the reliefs, the vegetation and the buildings, guiding the reading of the landscape and its numerous topographic references.

Historical-artistic note

Johann Heinrich von Pflaumern’s Mercurius Italicus belongs to the tradition of erudite guides dedicated to travel in Italy. Aimed at illustrating the main cities and regions of the peninsula, it pairs descriptions of places with attention to monuments, antiquities and natural curiosities.
The Gulf of Pozzuoli plate fits this project as a tool of orientation and antiquarian repertoire. Kilian’s engraving combines minute burin work with a perspectival construction of the territory, a hallmark of early 17th-century illustrated cartography. The specimen belongs to the 1650 edition, published after the first edition of the work in 1625.

Condition Report

Sheet with vertical editorial folds and one horizontal fold along the bottom, more evident on the verso. Slight paper browning, small oxidation spots and some stains, mostly marginal. Light wear along the folds and edges, with minor irregularities in the sheet’s profile and a fold at the lower right corner.
Margins trimmed, particularly reduced along the upper edge and the left side. Imprint legible, with good preservation of the engraved detail and coloring. Verso white, with bleed-through of the print and color.