[PORCACCHI, Thomas (c.1530-1585)]. L'Isole piu famose del mondo. In Venetia: apresso gli heredi di Simon Galignani, 1590.
Hardcover. Third edition. Three parts in one volume. Published by Georgio Angelieri for the heirs of Simone Galignan, Venice. In-folio (11 6/8 x 8 1/8 inches), (3) ff.bl., (12) ff., 201 pp., (1) p., (1) f.bl. Printed on thick paper. Engraved architectural title-page and 49 fine engraved maps in the text, including two world maps, by Girolamo Porro of Padua, wood-engraved printer's device on the last leaf, wood-engraved initials, head- and tail-pieces. Re-bound in antique-style blind-stamped calf. Condition: GOOD to VERY GOOD. Collated complete, binding tight and secure, contents very well preserved.
Notes: Third edition. The Isole piu famose del mondo was one of the most popular atlases of the late sixteenth century, treating the world as a collection of islands. Much enlarged, including 19 maps not included in the first edition of 1572, and with two additional maps not included in the second edition of 1576: "Descrittione dell'Istria" and "Descrittione dell'isolla d'Elandia, isola de Gotti". The New World is represented from page 157: "Descrittione della Gran Citta e isola Temistitan," with a plan; "Descrittione dell'isola et terra di Santa Croce, overo Mondo Nuouo," with a reduced version of Forlani's very important map of North America first published in Venice in 1565, which was the first to show America as a single geographic entity, and is the second map to show the Strait of Anian in any detail; there are descriptions of the islands of "Spagnvola", "Cvba", "Iamaica" or "S. Iacopo", "S. Lorenzo", and "S. Giovanni"or "Borichen," with five maps. The islands of the Pacific are depicted in "dell'Isole Molucche". The two world maps at the end illustrate "Descrittione del Mappamondo," and "Discorso intorno alla Carta da navigare". The isolario, or book of islands, was a popular genre that had first appeared in manuscript examples by Cristoforo Buondelmonte dating from the early fifteenth century, then in printed versions by Bartolommeo dalli Sonetti from the late 1400s. More so than its predecessors, the isolario first published in 1528 by Venice-based cartographer Benedetto Bordone was formative for Renaissance geographical conceptions. Porcacchi, who was a prolific author of classical translations, genealogies, and poetry, gives detailed accounts of the geography and the history of each island.
References: Adams P-1906; Alden and Landis 590/54; BMC Italian, p.534; Edit16 37349; Nordenskiöld Collection 2, 189; Phillips, Atlases 3327, Burden The Mapping of America 42; JCB (3) I:324; Sabin 64151; Shirley The Mapping of the World, pp. 127-128. Catalogued by Kate Hunter.
