Italy by Antonio Rizzi - Zannoni

THE ITALY OF GIO. ANTONIO RIZZI-ZANNONI in four imperial sheets with the addition of the places and postal roads.

"Make sure that until today we have not seen such a beautiful and precise map of Italy": thus ended, on May 22, 1802, the proclamation of the Florentine bookseller Giuseppe Molini, with which he announced the publication of a beautiful and precise depiction of Italy. As a matter of facts, no map of Italy has ever been printed that could reach these heights of sophistication and elegance. The map that we propose on this page is a development based on a representation of Italy published four years earlier by Molini, to which roads and post offices have been added. This map of Italy, as the title says, was printed from the drawing of the famous geographer Giovanni Antonio Bartolomeo Rizzi Zannoni, who throughout his career put his science at the service of the largest European companies. The cartographic drawing used is the famous one by Cassini, which took Paris as the starting point of the meridian. The orography is rendered in perspective with grazing light shading. There are eight drawing scales in the old units of measurement used in Italy, France, Germany and in the various Italian states. Of particular value is the cartouche at the bottom right which gives the drawing a pleasant artistic aspect.

Antonio Rizzi Zannoni's is an important map of Italy, starting from the dimensions: it is a finely drawn 100 x 130 cm canvas. This reproduction, like the original, is mounted on canvas 'in detachments, thus going to individually print 16 different sheets to be applied on a single canvas, to allow folding and conservation. Everything was done using the same technique as Molini, and therefore through the use of a manual press equipped with carefully engraved slabs. As you can imagine, therefore, these same reproductions are in turn unique collector's items: given the particular printing method, in fact, no copy is the same as the other. The paper, 100% pure cotton and of excellent weight, has been treated with particular vegetable substances, to allow an aging process that equals the original. Even the background canvas, always of the same material, undergoes the same treatment, to recover the historical and cultural value of this superb work in every detail.

*** Our canvases are printed with a hand press and are produced on request only. It takes about 10 days for the Black & White version and about 20 days for the Hand-painted.

Attention: the canvases are delivered without frame.