BALLINO Giulio De’ disegni delle più illustri città et fortezze del mondo. Parte I.

Tooley, Maps and Mapmakers (1984); Frangenberg, Chorographies of Florence. The Use of City Views and City Plans in the Sixteenth Century, in: Imago Mundi, 46, 41-64. Not in Sabin et Alden-Landis.

First edition of the first topographical atlas of cities printed in Italy.

In this work, the views often include animated figures and depict not only European cities (including Venice, Paris, Metz, Frankfurt and others) but also cities of the New World, including a very fine engraving of Tenochtitlan in Mexico. In the preface, the author promises his readers that this atlas contains all the latest information for the description of each place.

“Havvi le imagini, o le piante di quasi tutte le primarie città dell’Italia, anzi dell’Europa ; scolte, com’ella vedrà, in rame accuratamente : con una breve, ma verace, ma ordinata distrittione non solo delle origine loro ; ma di tutti appressogli accidenti loro maggiori: i quali approvano con l’autorità di molti scrittori, tenuti fino a questo giorno in gran conto”

A work of great military significance, it contains numerous details on the cities’ fortifications. In his study Renaissance War Studies, Hale refers to Ballino’s book as “the first topographical work aimed at an audience primarily interested in war” (p. 456). The cities are presented as battlefields, with strategic points indicated in the captions. Apart from their military significance, the views also offer an interesting insight into the development of architecture – for instance, the city of Rome is depicted on four plates (Ancient Rome, Medieval Rome, the fortifications of the ‘Borgo di Roma’, and Castel Sant’Angelo), whilst the beautiful plan of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, featuring boats and figures, provides a wealth of detail on the city’s architecture. Most of the engravings bear the signature of Domenico Zenoi.

Bibliographers are unanimous in their appreciation of the quality of this atlas and praise the detail of its maps. Frangenberg, for instance, notes with regard to the map depicting Florence that it is “the first to provide a key”.

Ballino’s atlas is the first Italian atlas of its kind and was preceded only by Du Pinet’s work, Plants, Pourtraitz et Descriptions de Plusieurs Villes, published in Lyon in 1564. The 52 engravings depict: Transsylvania, Venice, Fano, Mirandola, Florence, Siena, Rome (4), Ostia, Nettuno, Civitella, Vicovarro, Naples, Messina, Genova, Parma, Piacenza, Milan, Crescentino, Paris, Perpignan, Metz, Tionville, Calais, Guînes (printed upside-down), Antverp, Gravelines, Augsburg, Francfurt, Geneva, Gotha, Wittenberg, Vienna, Agria (Hungaria), Giavarino (Hungaria), Comar (Austria), Gyula, Tocai, Sziget, Saaca, Constantinople, siege at Tokay (signed by Forlani in the copper plate), Jerusalem, Tiberiade, Malta (one view of the island, the other showing the fortifications), Tripolis, Zerbe (Africa), the Rock of Vélez de Gomera, and Tenochtitlan.

Very good copy, small occasional marginal waterstain, view of Siena with small ink stains.