Italy - Venice // . Rialto Bridge – Sea Customs House – The Arsenal; Giuseppe Filosi - La città di Venezia - 1761-1780

Fascinating and rare aerial perspective view of the city of Venice and its islands (including Giudecca, Murano, Burano, San Giorgio Maggiore). The work reprises the famous seventeenth-century iconographic layout of Giovanni Merlo, masterfully reduced in scale by Filosi for insertion into the sought-after pocket guides of the Serenissima in the second half of the eighteenth century (including some variants of the famous "Forestiero illuminato"). The engraving meticulously describes the urban fabric, the dense network of canals plied by vessels of the era and the great sailing ships in the Bacino di San Marco. Along the lower margin is engraved the numerical legend (from 1 to 17) with the main historical and artistic points of interest in Venice, symmetrically divided into two blocks of three columns framing the central title arranged on three lines.
Punti d'interesse indicati nella legenda:
1. Ponte di Rialto – 2. Dogana di mare – 3. L'Arsenale – 4. S. Pietro di Castello – 5. S. Chiara – 6. S. Marta – 7. Bersaglio – 8. La Giudecca – 9. Canal della Giudecca – 10. Isola di S. Giorgio maggiore – 11. Isola della Madona delle Grazie – 12. Canal Grande – 13. Lagune attorno di Venezia – 14. Murano – 15. S. Michiel – 16. S. Cristoforo – 17. Burano.

STATO DI CONSERVAZIONE:
Excellent overall state of preservation. Sheet with healthy margins, sharp impression and well inked on strong eighteenth-century paper.