"Isola de Zafalonia",

This rare small map of Cephalonia was likely published in Venice by Donato Bertelli in the second edition of Civitatum Aliquot Insigniorum... (1574). It was engraved by Natale Bonifacio. North is oriented to the left, but the island is misshapen. There is nice topographical detail, and cities are represented as clusters of buildings. A galleon and trireme navigate the Ionian Sea. The map is decorated with a compass rose and a decorative title cartouche. Bonifacio was associated with the so-called Lafreri school and engraved a series of maps of the islands in the Ionian and Aegean Seas. Originally separately issued, some of the maps were later included in the first edition of Civitatum Aliquot Insigniorum... published by Ferrando Bertelli in 1568. Others, including this one, appeared in the second edition, or in Giovanni Fracesco Camocio's Isole Famose (circa 1572). This map was later copied for Alphonsus Lasor a Varea's Universus Terrarum Orbis Scriptorum... (1713). The Lafreri school was not actually a school, but a group of cartographers, mapmakers, engravers, and publishers who worked in the major Italian publishing centers of Rome and Venice, from about 1544 to 1585. Their maps were often compiled into made-to-order composite atlases and are much desired on the market today.

References: Zacharakis #204.

Condition: A

Marginal soiling.