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Rare Italian map of the city of Kamianets-Podilskyi in western Ukraine, produced in July of 1684 and showing the town in fine detail.
The map shows the town from the southwest, prominently featuring the deep u-bend in the Smotrych River that has almost turned into an Oxbow Lake. The city's castle, high above the city, is seen at the base of the map. The map includes two lengthy keys to the left and to the right of the map, which name places throughout the castle and town.
The town was at the end of many years of Polish rule when this map was made and had just passed into Ottoman hands following the Treaty of Buchach. However, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth would regain the city in 1699, after it unsuccessfully tried to besiege the city in 1687.
Giacomo Giovanni Rossi (1627-1691) was an Italian engraver and printer. He worked in Rome, the heir to an important printing business founded by his father, Giuseppe de Rossi (1570-1639). Giuseppe began the press in 1633 and Giovanni and his brother, Giandomenico (1619-1653) took it over upon his death. The brothers expanded the business and by the mid-seventeenth century it was the best-known printing house in Rome.
For his maps, Giovanni worked with Giacomo Cantelli da Vignola. They produced the Atlas Mercurio Geografico. The first edition is undated, but the second was issued in 1692, a year after Giovanni’s death. The maps were by Cantelli. The firm also published maps based on those of Nicolas Sanson.
Later, the business passed to Lorenzo Filippo (1682-?). By 1738, the firm was known as Calcografia Camerale, then, from 1870 to 1945, as the Regia Calcografica. Today, the firm is still in business and is called Calcografia Nazionale. It operates as a free museum and offers one of the best collections of prints and plates in the world.
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