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Rare atlas of Siciliy, published in Catania for educational purposes.
The atlas consists of 9 maps of Sicily, each showing progressively more details of the island, along with full page letter press lessons for each map.
The final map is flanked on each side by fold out sheets for the lesson, making the whole more than 8 feet wide.
Published by Tipografia Della R. Universita Degli Studi.
We note only the reference to the atlas in the Catalogo Ragionato della Biblioteca Ventimilliana esistente nella Regia Universita' Degli Studi Di Catania . . . (1830), at page 558.
Mario Coltraro
Mario Coltraro, (Catania, May 5, 1775 - Catania, September 11, 1838), was ecclesiast, philosopher, intellectual and pedagogue, who worked with the Institute of the Lancaster Method and was director of Tre Scuole Comunali, and founder of the Botanical Garden of Catania.
The following biographi is drawn from and translated (google translate) from the Dal Catalogo Ragionato della Biblioteca Ventimigliana esistente nella Regia Università degli Studi di Catania, Catania, tipografia della Regia Università, 1830
Mario Coltraro, Catanese naturalist of the early nineteenth century, believed in the territorial correspondence of loving senses between natural landscape, spontaneous vegetation and anthropic environment; was, therefore, strongly convinced of the intrinsic value of organic syncretism between places and men, the forerunner of autonomy, a distinctive figure of that constitutional patriotism, which was and still is Sicilianism.
The authenticity of the local local context, the genuineness of the Sicilian moral truth and virtuosity for the ethics of profession and solidarity were the slogans of the ideological-political ideal that inspired in its entirety the whole civil action and social lesson of Canon Coltrane.
a civic ingenuity devoted to the science of education and the political philosophy of participation, according to the assumption that only existential self-awareness and the formation of the popular classes would really make the local community active in promoting an effective, isolated and autonomous democratic circuit independent.
The cornerstones of his welfare vocation turned in fact around his three personal virtues: intellectual charity, moral tension, civil engagement.
His social work and his ecclesial dimension descended from a sincere theological faith which he exercised as a canon of the Collegiate, the parish church of Santa Maria dell'Elemosina, the religious fulcrum of university life, and a fervent devotee of the Church of Santa Maria dell'Ogninella .
Mario Coltraro was principally the founder of the Lancaster method, with which he contributed decisively to the promotion throughout the island of the mutual education or mutual teaching system, according to which the best-trained learners competed for the tutoring of classmates in need equitable support, effective cultural mediation of concepts, and widespread dissemination of knowledge.
He applied these teachings in the three Municipal Schools in Catania, of which he was the director, as well as in a further Linear Design School with a practical arithmetic course applied to the weighing and measuring mode, of which he was also the tutor, implementing his method also in the subjects of the Legal Metric System and Geography of Sicily.
He was so passionate about the Geography of Sicily that he oversaw the publication of a "Reasoned Atlas of the Island" with notes for the formation of the children.
He was also Master of Grammar at the Secondary School in Catania and then at the School of the Duomo.
After the changes in 1820-21, the Lancaster method was opposed by the Pubbliche Istruzione Commission, which attempted to ban it, as it inspired by the young sentiments of insubordination, contrary to the principle of authority, precisely because of its peculiar characteristic of facilitating reciprocity affect and facilitate the emulation of practices and behaviors.
He was also known in the City for his innovative and avant-garde political ideas.
At the time of the constitutionalism between 1812 and 1813, he was searched and arrested by the police, which did not dispel the fierce and indomitable spirit of the Catane intellectual.
He was summoned by the Scrutiny Council in 1822 and accused by the police who so describes it:
"The well-known preceptor Catanese Mario Coltraro is affiliated to the Patriotic Vespers sect."
He was a profound believer in Antonio Genovesi's economic thesis, also for the fruitful exercise of a profound sense of business, almost as a financial breakthrough; in fact, since 1819 he started selling all his real estate assets and increasing the liquidity obtained by lending interest.
His generosity was not even stopped by the event of his departure, having disposed by will, that his possessions be used for the benefit of works for the citizens, from the care of virgins to the urban decoration "for the benefit of the population and the ornate of the city. "
In his studies and in his life he was linked to the lesson and the memory of great Catanian guides such as Domenico Tempio, Leonardo Gambino, Palermitano follower of Genovesi, Raimondo Platania, teacher of the Seminary of Catania, abbot, poet, philosopher.
His references were well-known to Catania since then, for having plunged at the end of the century the snow paths of secularization of knowledge and cultural secularization.
Mario Coltraro does not deny even in the end
