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From the First Atlas of Italy
Fine example of Magini's regional map of Italy, extending from the Gulf of Venice to Milan and North to the Lake District and the Alps.
Fine elaborate detailed cartouche.
Giovanni Antonio Magini’s Atlante geografico d'Italia (Geographical Atlas of Italy) is a landmark 17th-century cartographic work, being the first atlas of Italy. Published posthumously in 1620 by his son, Fabio Magini, the atlas consists of 61 engraved maps covering the regions of Italy with remarkable precision and detail. Magini (1555–1617), a renowned astronomer, mathematician, and geographer, sought to create a comprehensive and accurate depiction of Italy based on direct surveys and contemporary sources.
Magini’s atlas is particularly notable for its regional approach, with each map focusing on a specific Italian state or provinc. It was designed to rival the work of Abraham Ortelius and Gerard Mercator, offering an Italian-centered alternative to the broader European atlases of the time. The maps are elegantly engraved, featuring decorative cartouches, coats of arms, and detailed topographical elements.
Despite its historical significance, the Atlante geografico d'Italia remained incomplete at Magini’s death, and its eventual publication was made possible through the support of the Duke of Mantua and contributions from other scholars. The atlas remains an essential reference for historians of Italian cartography and early modern geography.
Giovanni Antonio Magini was an accomplished Italian cartographer, astronomer, astrologer, and mathematician—in short, a Renaissance man. Born in Padua, he studied philosophy in Bologna. His first publication was Ephemerides coelestium motuum, an astronomical treatise published in 1582. In 1588 he was selected, over Galileo Galilei, to fill the chair of mathematics at the University of Bologna. He died in that city in 1617.
Magini operated under a geocentric understanding of the universe and created his own planetary theory consisting of eleven rotating spheres. He published this theory in Novæ cœlestium orbium theoricæ congruentes cum observationibus N. Copernici (Venice, 1589). In the 1590s he published works on surveying and trigonometry, as well as invented a calculator. In 1596, he published a commentary of Ptolemy’s Geographia, which was published in several editions and languages. He labored for years on an atlas of Italy, which was printed posthumously in 1620. To pay for this project, Magini served as the math tutor to the son of the Duke of Mantua, as well as being the court astrologer to the Duke.
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