11th Sep, 2019 10:30 GMT/BST

Books, Maps & Ephemera

 
Lot 83
 

83

Blaeu, Johannes Plan de la Ville et des Environs de Pavie. Amsterdam: Pieter Mortier, 1704....

Blaeu, Johannes
Plan de la Ville et des Environs de Pavie. Amsterdam: Pieter Mortier, 1704. Engraved map, uncoloured, framed and glazed.
Blaeu originally began his enormous atlas of Italy after finishing his monumental Atlas Maior in 1662. The work was planned in two parts, each of five books, the first on Italy and the second on Rome. However he only finished three volumes in his lifetime. Pieter Mortier reissued the Blaeu maps in 1704/5 as an atlas, from which this map is taken. The map is numbered XI and is taken from the first Mortier volume on Lombardy (Pavia being the old capital of the Lombard Kings). A description under the map's title explains the 1525 siege of Pavia, where the besieging French under Francis I were shattered by a larger relieving Imperial army under Charles V. However intriguingly, a modern dealer's note on the rear appears to suggest that the illustration of warfare on the map shows not 1525, but rather the failed siege of 1655 by Prince Thomas of Savoy, which would certainly have been contemporary for Blaeu during his original work on the maps. It may be that, in common with other Early Modern depictions of historical scenes, Blaeu drew on the contemporary forms of dress and equipment, inspired by the recent events.

Sold for £50
Estimated at £200 - £400


 

Auction: Books, Maps & Ephemera, 11th Sep, 2019

Books, Maps & Ephemera

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