Porcacchi, Tommaso
L'isole più famose del mondo
1572, Venetia (Venice), Simon Galignani
First Edition
L'isole piu famose del mondo stands at the point where Renaissance humanism, cartography, and the literature of discovery briefly converged in a new form. It is the most influential Italian 'isolario' (book about islands) of the sixteenth century, and the first book of its kind to be illustrated with beautiful copper-engraved maps. Conceived by Tommaso Porcacchi, a Florentine humanist and protege of Cosimo I de' Medici, as a comprehensive geographical and historical survey of the world's notable islands, it moves from the familiar shores of the Mediterranean to the newly discovered territories of the Americas and the Pacific. In doing so, it transforms the older isolario tradition from a mainly derivative descriptive genre into a more ambitious work of historical geography, one that Porcacchi explicitly grounded in both classical authorities and reports gathered from travellers and mariners. That claim, unusual in the genre, is part of what gives the book its intellectual modernity. The edition also matters as a landmark in the visual history of geography. Its maps were engraved by Girolamo Porro of Padua, whose fine copperwork gave the volume a precision and elegance unmatched by the woodcut isolarii of Bordone and his predecessors. What distinguishes this form in particular is the way its engraved apparatus carries new geographic knowledge into a format long associated with inherited cosmography. The New World material is especially significant, above all the reduced map of North America derived from Paolo Forlani's 1565 prototype, which helped secure the book's lasting place in the history of cartography. Issued before the enlarged 1576 edition, it preserves the work at the moment of its original conceptual clarity: a humanist survey of islands as sites of history, empire, commerce, and marvel, shaped for readers living in the immediate aftermath of Mediterranean conflict and transoceanic expansion.
The work opens with a dedication to Don Giovanni d'Austria, Admiral of the Holy League, and a prefatory Proemio by Porcacchi. The volume presents 30 maps within the text and detailed descriptions of islands from the Mediterranean to the newly discovered territories, treating their locations, characteristics, inhabitants, and historical significance. The New World section includes descriptions and maps of Hispaniola (identified as the first island discovered by Columbus, where gold apparently sprouts from the soil, and the strange iguanas live) and Cuba. The Mondo Nuovo (New World) map incorporates a reduced version of Paolo Forlani's landmark 1565 map of North America - the first printed map to depict the continent as a single geographical entity. Porro's reduction shows the Strait of Anian, the Sierra Nevada named for the first time, part of the course of the Colorado traced from Coronado's expedition, and Ochelaga, the Iroquois village around which Montreal would be built, placed in the Land of Labrador, while Antiquarius Japan floats in the middle of the Pacific in the inherited Gastaldi tradition. The early manuscript note in Italian in the margin of p. 102 points at the description of a strange animal with a pouch on its belly, most likely a South American marsupial. The descriptions of Indigenous traditions are shaped by disturbing bias and tales (as it happens for the native populations of other islands throughout the book). Porcacchi also includes a description of the Moluccas drawn from accounts of the spice trade, of Sri Lanka as Taprobana, treated as an island of almost supernatural abundance, of England and Scotland in separate entries, and of Iceland with its marvels of volcanoes and perpetual ice. These maps did not appear in any isolario before Porcacchi and reached a wide audience through successive editions of the work. Further interesting maps include Tenochtitlan (spelled Temistitan), the capital of the Aztec reign destroyed by the Spanish about 50 years earlier. Despite its location is approximately the same as Mexico City, the ancient capital was surrounded by a marvelous artificial lake - hence considered an island. The volume closes with the Discorso intorno alla carta da navigare (pp. 114), accompanied by a nautical chart of the world, and the Descrittione del Mappamondo, a reduction of Camocio's world map of 1567, both among the most important cartographic items in the book.
What's cooler than a book about islands? The relatively small and sun-baked (Sicily, Malta, Cyprus, Cuba) and the gloriously oversized (Britain, Iceland, even America - yes, it counts, water goes all the way around!). Better yet, Porcacchi was among the first to report on newly discovered lands, with newly etched maps, blending classic knowledge and fresh-off-the-boat dispatches into something that feels both charmingly naïve and sharply humanist. Add sea monsters on the maps, and you have a front-row seat to the greatest show on earth: the world discovering itself.
Pp. [1] f.e., [24], 117, [3] , [1] r.e.
Modern mute vellum binding with modern endpapers. Architectural frontispiece with putti and statues; early manuscript ownership note in ink at the lower margin “Joannis Cesaris Scholaris.” Occasional marginal staining, but the copy is generally fresh and clean, with wide margins. Small tear with loss to the margin of the first two leaves; the lower margins of the same leaves worn. A small ink stain at the Dedication, with a minute hole touching the text but not affecting legibility. Leaves a–a4 and b–b2 (Tavola di tutte le cose) misbound after quire b3 (Prohemio), so that the proemio is interrupted by the index, though complete. The final leaf of the introduction is blank and shows a small wormhole in the lower inner corner; a similar defect appears on p. 1, both with early restoration. Tear in the lower margin of p. 11 restored. Very slight restorations at the inner margins of a few other leaves at the beginning of the volume, likely executed at the time of rebinding. Woodcut initials and tailpieces. Page 51 misnumbered 50. Tear with small loss at the lower corner of p. 57, well clear of the text. Early manuscript note in Italian in the margin of p. 102 "Animale di stravagante figura". Printer's device at the last leaf. The famous 30 engraved copper plates with geographical maps are fresh and in great condition. A complete copy, in a modern binding, internally in excellent condition.
Dimensions (inches): 12 x 8 1/4 x 3/4
Tommaso Porcacchi (1530-1585) was a Florentine humanist and geographer associated with the Medici cultural world.
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