One of the earliest versions of Sophianos's map of Greece

BERTELLI, Ferrando

Totius Graeciae Descriptio.
Venice: Dominico Zenoi, 1564. Etching, two sheets conjoined, total 395 x 620mm.

Trimmed to neatline, contemporarily re-margined for inclusion in a Lafreri-type atlas.

A very rare 'Lafreri-type' map, reduced from of the eight-sheet map of classical Greece and western Turkey by Nikolaos Sophianos, first published in 1540 and now lost. Using the Ptolemaic outline, it illustrates the history of the country from mythical time to the founding of the Eastern Roman Empire and the introduction of Christianity, with Athens and Constantinople depicted as the largest cities and Troy shown as ruins. The names used derive from Greek and Roman writers such as Herodotus, Thucydides, Strabo and Pliny.
The map was reissued by Donato Bertelli in 1569.
Although the title appears trimmed Yale's full-margined example shows this loss was on the printing plate.

BIFOLCO & RONCA: 657, first state of two. ZACHARAKIS: 359.
Stock ID : 24220