Rare Carmelite atlas of Spain, published by Domenico Mariano Franceschini in Rome.
The maps and plates are all printed in sepia.
The work consists of an allegorical title page, allegorical image of the Virgin Mary, Santa Theresa and St. John and 9 maps comprising the Carmelite Provinces of Spain. The maps include:
- Provincia Boeticae Superioris
- Provincia Castellae Veteris
- Provincia Castellae Novae
- Provincia Gotholoniae
- Provincia Portguallliae
- Provincia Aragoniae
- Provincia Boeticae Inferioris
- Provincia Navarrae
- Provincia Murtiensis Seu Turdatana
This is a very rare atlas of Spain illustrates Carmelite convents of both friars and nuns and engraved by Domenico Franceschini.
The map was created to show the provinces of the Spanish Discalced Carmelite Congregation.
The engraver of the maps is Domenico Franceschini. Franceschini was from a family of Italian engravers active in the eighteenth century. The maps were intended to illustrate a boo on the Spanish Discalced Carmelites Provinciarum et Conventuum Fratum, ac monalium Discalceatorum Ordinis B Virginis Mariae de monte Carmelo Congregationis Hispaniae Corographica Topographica, et Chronologica Descriptio, published in Rome over the course of eleven years, 1739 to 1750. The author of the book is Giovanni Battista.
The book was meant as a geography and history of the order. The earliest origin of the Carmelite order is traced to a group of hermits living on Mount Carmel. In the early thirteenth century, the hermits requested St. Albert of Jerusalem, Papal legate, for a Rule. Albert laid out sixteen articles which became the foundation for the Carmelite Order. After leaving the Near East due to conflict, the Carmelites established houses in England, France, Catalonia, and elsewhere in Europe. The order of Carmelite nuns was approved by papal bull in 1452 and the first nuns in Spain came in 1479.
The Discalced, or Barefoot, Carmelites emerged from a movement in Spain in the 1560s and represented a return to a more eremitical existence. The Discalced Carmelites were recognized as a separate province of the Carmelite Order in 1580.
Rarity
OCLC locates a single example (University of Texas at Austin), noting 10 maps and 2 plates (9 Iberian peninsula maps and Mexico). No mention of the sepia printing.