The Island of Patmos
Camocio, Giovanni Francisco.
Patmos "
Pamosa....." Venice Ferrando and/or Donato Bertell. 1566-74
Copper engraved view of the island of Patmos from Camoccio's "
Isole Famose Porti, Fortezze E Terre Maritime" . Modern hand colour; verso blank.
The map shows the monastery of St John as a large edifice in the centre of the island.
decorative title cartouche with long text describing the island and its history. Dark impression; modern hand colour; mounted.
Giovanni Francesco Camocio
was active as map publisher in Venice between 1558 and 1575. He was one of the most important mapmakers of the Lafreri-school.
During the short period between the publication of Sebastian Münster's
Geographia (1540) in Basel and Abraham Ortelius Theatrum
Orbis Terrarum(1570) in Antwerp, Italy was the most important place of map production in Europe. The output in Rome and Venice was no less than 660 different maps of the world, which were based mostly on large woodcut maps. These Italian copper engraved maps were used, among others, by Mercator and Ortelius as templates. The individual maps of different formats were mostly compiled at the request of the buyer and bound by expanding the margin of the smaller maps. For the resulting bound collection of maps, the name
Lafreri-Atlas was established. Besides the eponym Antonio Lafreri and Camocio, we have to mention Bertelli, Duchetti and Forlani, which also published bound collections of maps. As the most important representative of this period, the Venetian cartographer Giacomo Gastaldi overshadowed his combatant in volume and importance.
Besides Camocio's single-sheet maps of the continents and the world, he published an
Isolario,a collection of island maps and plans of harbour. It was published between c. 1566 and 1574 without a title, after 1575 with the title
"Isole Famose Porti, Fortezze E Terre Maritime" by Donato Bertelli who published the plates under his name after the death of Camocio.
Blackmer /Navari:274; Zacharakis:787/514. 210 by 155mm (8¼ by 6 inches).
ref: 3230
€1000