Italy - Florence; Francesco Scoto (1548/ 1622), Mattio Cadorin (detto Bolzetta) - veduta prospettica a volo d'uccello - 1651-1660

Title of the work: Itinerario, overo nova descrittione de' viaggi principali d'Italia. It was the most famous and widespread guide for travelers on the Grand Tour in Italy during the entire 17th and 18th centuries.

This edition dedicated to Abate Ruberto Papafava ("Dedicato all'Illustriss. et Reverendiss. Sig. Abbate Ruberto Papafava Nobile Veneto"), corresponds to the Padua editions of the mid-17th century, in particular those published in 1654, 1659 or 1675.

Publisher and Place: Printed in Padua by Mattio Cadorini (or for the Cadorino)

Copperplate engraving in black and white, excellent inking and intaglio printing on hand-made laid paper, minimal margins, margin opposite the binding with wear, restoration along the central fold, browning, oxidation and yellowing; all as in the photo. Good state of preservation, slight traces of foxing and browning. Editorial fold and visible binding marks. Insured shipping via Bartolini/DPD courier. To benefit from the insurance coverage, any damage to the neck (of the package) must be contested and reported to the courier at the time of delivery. Otherwise, it will not be possible to activate the insurance reimbursement procedure.

The “Itinerario, overo nuova descrittione de' viaggi principali d'Italia” is a famous 17th-century travel guide, originally written in Latin by Francesco Scoto (Schott Franz) and subsequently translated into Italian, expanded and published in various editions between 1629 and 1670 (e.g., at Francesco Bolzetta or Gio. Pietro Brigonci). The book provides a detailed description of travels in Italy, enriched with city plans, bird’s-eye views and maps, describing the most notable things to see.

With the name Mattio Cadorin (also known as Matteo Cadorin or under the pseudonym Bolzetta) is mainly referred to a prominent Italian editor, printer and bookseller of the 17th century.

Franz Schott (1548-1622) Italianized (Francesco Scoto)

Franz Schott, in Latin Franciscus Schottus, Italianized Francesco Scoto (Antwerp, 1548 – 1622), was a jurist and Flemish traveler. Brother of Andreas Schott, he was the author of a guide for pilgrims bound for Italy for the Jubilee of 1600: the Itinerarium nobiliorum Italiae regionum, urbium, oppidorum, et locorum. The work was hugely successful and was translated into Italian, English, French and reprinted until the eighteenth century.

Little is known about the life of the jurist Franz Schott, except that he came from Antwerp and studied law. As noted, in 1600 Schott published the first edition of the work written in Latin with the title Itinerarii Italiae at Jeans Moretus of Antwerp, aiming to provide readers, mostly pilgrims traveling to Italy and especially to Rome for the Holy Year, with a practical guide to move easily.

In 1601, by the work of the two Padua editors Francesco Bolzetta and Pietro Bertelli, the second Latin edition of the Itinerario d’Italia by Franz Schott was published in Italy, in Vicenza; the work was enriched with maps of some Italian cities and the text, by the editors’ desire, was expanded with the intervention of Geronimo Capugnano, a Dominican friar from Bologna. A later Latin edition was published by Pietro Bertelli in 1610 in Vicenza. In 1620 the same author Franz Schott, driven by the immediate success his Itinerario had achieved, attempted the publication of a further Latin edition of the same, extending it to Germany. In 1625, after the death of Franz Schott, on the occasion of a new Jubilee year his brother Andreas oversaw a new Latin edition of the Itinerario, which was followed by the edition published in Amsterdam in 1655 by the great geographical publisher Jodocus Jansson. This last edition, erroneously attributed to Andreas Schott, included eighteen city maps of Italy, largely derived from Joannes Jansson’s atlas, Illustrium Italiane urbium tabulae, published in 1657, whose plans had, however, already appeared in 1626 in Nova et accurata Italiane descriptio.

Particularly for the Italian editions, the first Italian edition of Schott’s Itinerario d’Italia was published in Venice in 1610 by the editor Francesco Bolzetta. It was based on the 1601 Latin text but the title erroneously attributed the work to Andreas Schott. From this first Italian edition all subsequent Italian editions descended. Through Bolzetta, the Vicentine editions appeared in 1615, 1622 and 1638, and the Padua editions in 1629, 1642 and 1649. In all these Italian editions the error of attributing the work to Andreas Schott rather than to his brother Franz has been maintained. In Rome the Itinerario by Schott was published for the first time in 1650 by the editor Filippo De Rossi, based on the 1649 text. From this edition the attribution of the guide to its rightful author, Franz Schott, was restored. University of Genoa