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Description

One of the First Italian Sea Atlases -- An Important Early Atlas  of the Mediterranean

Only this, the first part, was ever published. 

It is difficult to find much information on the Genoese captain Francesco Maria Levanto, who, at his own expense, printed all the best maps available at the time on the Mediterranean sea.

Levanto's atlas is a close copy of Pieter Goos's Zee-spiegel of 1662, the text on the charts being a direct translation into Italian from the Dutch. Certain of Levanto's plates were used by Vincenzo Maria Coronelli in editions of his Atlante Veneto from 1696 onwards, and also in a new edition of the present work, bearing the same title, but under Coronelli's imprint of 1698, the text and plates essentially unchanged.

The beautiful work describes the islands and the coasts of the Mediterranean through twelve "demonstrations"; the rich iconographic apparatus begins with two portolans of the Mediterranean, one dedicated to the western part, the other to the eastern part; every "demonstration" is accompanied by useful tables showing distances in Italian leagues. 

Condition Description
Title-page, (4), 152 numbered pages, numerous woodcut coastal profiles and other diagrams in the text. 25 engraved sheets (all but one double-page) relating to the Mediterranean coasts. Folio. pp. [6 (copper-engraved title with naval vignette, blank, dedication, preface)], 1-152, with 25 numbered copper-engraved sea charts (of which 24 double-page),Occasional modern paper restorations. Numerous woodcut diagrams and charts printed in text; edges damaged, occasionally with minor loss, professionally restored, a few faint waterstains; 19th-century marbled vellum over boards, gilt-tooled in-gilt borders, gilt corner-pieces, gilt plugs in compartments with gilt lettering-piece in one, marbled endpapers; a little scuffed in places, lightly bumped corners, cracked hinges, otherwise a very good copy.
Reference
Cfr. Zacharakis, 1355; Koeman IV, Lev I