The first atlas of Italy

The first atlas of Italy, compiled by Giovanni Antonio Magini (1555-1617), the Professor of Mathematics, Astronomy and Astrology at Bologna, but published posthumously under the direction of his son Fabio. Produced with the patronage of the Duke of Mantua, the atlas contained maps from various sources, but none by Magini himself. The maps still resemble the Lafreri style of engraving, but have taken on the influences of the Dutch school that dominated 17th century cartography. This was probably the result of the work of Benjamin Wright (1575-1613), a British engraver who had worked in Amsterdam, whose name is on eleven of the maps. Hind wrote that Magini 'must have greatly valued Wright's work to have borne with so tiresome a collaborator, irregular in life and given to drink, for twice he had to release plates which Wright had pawned in Rome'. Wright was also dead by the time the atlas was published.