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A rare and possibly unique Italian map of South America, issued in 1736 by Domenico de Rossi at the long-established Rossi press in Rome. This map forms part of a scarce suite of late continental maps engraved in the Sanson tradition during the final phase of the de Rossi firm’s activity, just before its holdings were absorbed by the newly established Papal Calcografia Camerale.
Despite its imprint claiming it to be based on the most modern accounts, the geography is strikingly archaic for the period. The mythical Lake Parime remains prominently placed in the Guianas; the Amazon and Rio de la Plata originate in speculative interior lakes; and southern South America fades into a loosely defined “Terra Magellanica.” These features closely follow the mid-seventeenth-century French cartographic tradition of Nicolas Sanson but are newly engraved and stylistically updated with somewhat crude burin work.
The map is part of a series dated 1736, also including sheets of North America, Asia, and Africa, each similarly rare.
Earlier Rossi-issued maps of South America, engraved around 1680, differ substantially in both design and format, indicating that this is not a reworking of earlier plates but rather a newly commissioned plate in the final years of the firm.
