Albania - Durazzo; Simone Pinargenti / Lafreri school - Durazzo. Antiquamente detta epidamna citta nella provincia di Albania - 1561-1580

Albania. – Durazzo. Antiqua called Epidamnos, a city in the province of Albania. Original print, 1573 or 1576. Copper engraving. Sheet size: 19.5 × 26.8 cm. – Image size: 14.8 × 26.5 cm.

The beautiful map of Durazzo (Epidamnos in antiquity, the present-day Durrës in Albania) was created by Giovanni Francesco Camocio in 1571 in Venice for his cartographic work Isole Famose. Shortly thereafter (ca. 1573–1576) the motif was also published in a very similar form by other well-known Italian engravers of the so-called “Lafreri School,” as here Simone Pinargenti published.

The map shows the fortified city of Durrës on a rocky promontory. Off the coast in the Adriatic Sea you can see Venetian galleys. On the fortress walls flies a flag with the Ottoman crescent, since the strategically important port city was hotly contested at that time between the Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire.

- Slightly stained. Upper edge with a short tear, not reaching into the image.