Lot 121: SICILY - GASTALDI, GIACOMO (c.1500-1566).

Descrittione della Sicilia con le sue isole. Venice: Giacomo Gastaldi, 1545, engraved map of Sicily, 374 x 540mm, on a Royal sheet, trimmed with extended paper margins (Some light discolouration and a small hole to upper centre.)

THIS FINE AND RARE MAP IS THE SECOND EARLIEST DATED WORK OF THE CARTOGRAPHER, who was one of the great map makers of the sixteenth-century. Gastaldi had been working in Venice since 1539, and this map epitomises the period in which he perfected his artistic virtuosity in the medium of copper engraving. Karrow cites seven later versions based on Gastaldi's masterpiece. Sicily is depicted with its dramatic topography, featuring numerous ports and hill towns, and is surrounded by a Mediterranean of undulating, sinuous waves. Karrow no.30/2, Tooley:1939 no.514, Woodward:1996 watermark 173. (3)

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