Sicilia

Description

Map of the island of Sicily adorned with an inset portrait of King Philip II, a coat-of-arms, and a strapwork scale cartouche.

The map is signed “Joann Bussemecher excudit,” with bottom left the letter Q, for Quad.

The map belongs to the atlases published by the Cartographic School of Cologne. For nearly half a century, Cologne was the most important mapmaking center in the 16th century, mainly due to Dutch and Flemish refugees fleeing religious persecution. Among the principal members of the school include Quad Matthaeus, Johannes Metellus, Giovanni Botero and Franz Hogenberg, who was its founder. The atlases were often published anonymously or using pseudonyms precisely because of some political and religious problems that characterized the era.

Verso text: Latin.