Information on topographical map of Rome

Hello, I wonder if anyone can help me to identify this map of Rome. The map is 12 inches by 17. Thick watermarked paper but no date or engraver or cartographer information that I can find.
Appreciate any guidance that can be provided.
Thanks, paulF

 

Not sure if you've already seen these, but here are two websites that have very little information about the map:
http://www.europeana.eu/portal/en/record/9200365/BibliographicResource_1000055732350.html

https://www.gettyimages.ie/detail/n...um-domus-aurea-roma-rom-news-photo/1041789328

 

Excellent, thank you. I am still searching for information regarding engraver or cartographer as those details are absent.
Thank you for the information.
paulF

 

Since u can get a copy of it from Getty for only $499. , maybe your 1730 original is worth more to someone. U could probably find out if u contacted that map guy in Philadelphia who does most of the map appraisals on ARS. He’ll know all about this one without even looking it up. See if he’ll make u an offer.

 

Here's the Biblioteque nationale de France entry. They have no publisher info, but date theirs (without index) to 1779.
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8442371w

I think it's a problem with maps: the plates moved around a lot. If someone was producing an atlas, they shopped around for what plates were available rather than commissioning new work. You would have to find the original appearance of the map to hope to get the information you want, and even then there's a good chance the info simply isn't there.

I found the BnF info by searching the title: Prima urbes inter divum domus aurea Roma.

I think the title translates as "First among cities, the home of gods, golden Rome"

The map may have a connection to a Roman poet named Ausonius (4th C) who published a book called Ordo Urbium Nobilium (The order of Noble Cities). I don't know if a search for 18th C editions of that would be productive.

 

My guess is that it is a quotation from the poet, exalting Rome, like putting This sceptred isle on a map of England. Around the edges are various references to the mythology & history of Rome. The she-wolf suckling Romulus & Remus; a cherub bearing the arms of the Pope, another with the SPQR of the Roman Legions. The figure seated atop the half column is probably Roma, the personification of Rome.

The map is not topographical; it does not show elevation, etc. It's a map showing the most notable factories in Rome at the time.

 

At the first link it says the language is Latin. Only the poetic quotation is in Latin. The Index is in Italian. Very little indeed.

 

Your input has been fantastic, thank you all! I sent information to

Barry Lawrence Ruderman
Antique Maps Inc.

and have received a response if you care to read, just a request for a large scan and their scan of a similar example.

https://www.raremaps.com/gallery/de...am-a-leonardo-bufalino-ligneis-bufalino-nolli

No confirmation of any connection between the two but really interesting.

 

Awesome, please let us know how it goes.

 

Yours is clearly a different edition than the one at Rare Maps, with much prettier graphics that take up more of the space. Theirs has a really industrial look:



The question will be whether your specimen is from the original printer or a later reproduction. It could be the latter & still be quite old. Even copies may be, as they say, 'scarce'.

 

Pride of ownership Bronwen, I like my version better but good to have someone who agrees

 

Yours would have enormous appeal to an interior decorator to the wealthy. In a hospital charity shop, long, long ago, because I had little money on me that day, I was going to buy just one of a set of nine Complete Works of Alexander Pope, with the idea of coming back for the others another day. The friendly woman minding the shop warned me that if I did not take them then, an interior decorator would grab them. Didn't want them broken up that way, so handed over my $5 bill, got my 50 cents change, and took my books, all 9 of them.

Edit: Calfskin bound from 1766.

 

Do you still have them?

 

Yes, at the back of a shelf with other books in front.

 

It's interesting that on your example the map and the index appear to be two separate plates. Don't know what that means.

 

The new decorating trend. Well, what else are they good for.

 

The person with the good handwriting was not the one who could draw?