[SAVONAROLA (Raffaello) as:] & LASOR A VAREA (Alphonsus).

Universus terrarum orbis scriptorum calamo delineatus ... qui de Europae, Asiae, Africae, & Americae regnis, provinciis, populis, civitatibus ...

First Edition; Folio (355 x 240 mm); 2 vols., titles printed in red and black with printer’s device, half-titles, 499 engraved maps, plans and prospects, most set in the text, eleven additional engraved plates and three leaves bearing twenty-four costume figures. Original pale grey paper boards, glazed paper spines, ms. titling to both spines; boards and spines darkened and discoloured by ingrained dust, joints beginning to split in places but still very firm. Padua : Giovanni Battista Conzatti, 1713.

£15,000.00

Alphonsus Lasor a Varea was the nome-de-plume of Raffaello Savonarola (d. 1748), a close anagram of his name. The Universus terrarum orbis scriptorum … was a historicogeographical and religious dictionary of the world, extensively illustrated with small format illustrations. Interestingly, and remarkably, the maps, plans and prospects that appear were printed from plates engraved at least a hundred years earlier, and some even earlier. The principal sources are Tomaso Porcacchi’s Le Isole più famose del Mondo, 1572, Giovanni Antonio Magini’s edition of Ptolemy’s Geografia, 1596, Nicolo Valegio’s Raccolta di le piu illustri et famose Citta di Tutto il Mondo [ca. 1595] and Giuseppe Rosaccio’s Viaggi a Costantinopoli, 1598.

References: Sabin 39133; Shirley, T.LAS-1a.

Stock No.
224561