• Title : L America Settentrionale....Guglielmo Sansone...Gio Giacomo De Rossi in Roma l Anno 1687
• Size: 23 1/2in x 18in (595mm x 455mm)
• Condition: (AVery Good Condition
• Date : 1687
• Ref #:  17061

Description:
This original hand coloured copper-plate engraved antique map of North America was engraved in 1687 by Giorgio Widman and was published by Giovanni Giacomo de Rossi in the 1688 edition of Atlas Mercurio Geografico

Giorgio Widman (active 1672 to 1682) was a celebrated map and lettering engraver, who worked primiparity with the De Rossi publishing house. He is perhaps best known for having executed the lettering of Giovanni Battista Faldas superb 1675 map of Rome.

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Original & later
Colors used: - Yellow, green, blue, pink
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 23 1/2in x 18in (595mm x 455mm)
Plate size: - 22in x 16in (560mm x 405mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - Small nick to left bottom margin
Plate area: - Light creasing, top centerfold rejoined
Verso: - Light soiling

Background:
Attractive map of North America, with California depicted as an island. This is the Italian edition of the 1669 revised edition of Nicolas Sansons 1650 map. This is the third state of De Rossi s map, dated 1687 (after the first in 1677), with the addition of place names and other features, i.e. a coastline added from Agubela de Cato northward, Stretto d ANIAN named at 60 deg. N., MARE DI CALIFORNIA named to the west of California, and with many internal features added above 45 deg. N. Describing the first state, McLaughlin notes California with indented northern coast, with nothing to west and Agubela de Cato to north. Among the place names are C. de Mendocino, Pta. de los Reyes, Pta. de Monte Rey, Pta. de Francisco Draco (south of Pta de Monte Rey), Canal de S. Barbara, I. de S. Catalina, P. de S. Diego, etc. In the southwest, there is a large lake near Taosii, with R. de Norte flowing southwest from it to the Mar Rosso.

de Rossi, Giovanni Giacomo (1627 – 1691)
De Rossi was an Italian engraver and printer, active in Rome in the second half of the 17th century.
His father, Giuseppe de Rossi (1570-1639), was the founder of the most important and active printing press of the 17th century in Rome. The printing press begun in 1633, by Giuseppe de Rossi, and it passed firstly to Giovanni Giacomo and to his brother Giandomenico (1619-1653), and then later to Lorenzo Filippo (1682-?); in 1738 it became the Calcografia Camerale, from 1870 until 1945 the Regia Calcografica, and today it is known as the Calcografia Nazionale. Here are conserved, amongst many others, the plates of Giambattista Piranesi (1720-1778).
Giovanni Giacomo de Rossi was the most involved of all the various family members who ran the press, and he worked between 1638 and 1691, and was to take the company to the height of its success. The artists that he printed the etchings for included Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (1609-1665), Pietro Testa (1612-1650) and Giovan Francesco Grimaldi (1606–1680).