Palermo Città Principalissima nella Sicilia.

Description

A masterpiece of Italian Renaissance urban cartography.

This magnificent 1580 view-plan of Palermo is the first large printed map of the Sicilian capital, designed by Orazio Maiocco, engraved by Natale Bonifacio, and published in Rome by Claudio Duchetti. Oriented with south at the top, the map adopts a sea- and harbor-viewpoint, a perspective that would dominate depictions of Palermo for centuries. The city’s powerful maritime role is vividly expressed in the busy port filled with ships, while the imposing bastioned fortifications—constructed in the mid-16th century and shown replacing earlier medieval walls—declare Palermo’s dual identity as both commercial hub and fortified seat of power.

Urbanistically, the plan reveals the city’s structure during the height of Spanish rule: open spaces such as the Piano della Marina and the Palazzo del Re define the civic and viceregal centers of authority. The Viceroy’s Palace and adjacent castle dominate the composition, visually reinforcing Palermo’s “royal” status, underscored by the crowned arms of Spanish Sicily. The map is dedicated to Viceroy Marcantonio Colonna, a figure emblematic of Spanish central authority in Sicily and a known adversary of the entrenched baronial elite. The inclusion of Maiocco, a cleric, as draughtsman further suggests an official commission rooted in administrative and ceremonial purposes.

Engraved with extraordinary precision by Natale Bonifacio of Šibenik (1538–1592), one of the foremost engravers active in Rome in the late 16th century, the map exemplifies the union of technical skill and aesthetic sophistication characteristic of the Lafreri School of Italian printmaking. The publisher Claudio Duchetti (d. 1585), nephew of the famed Antonio Lafreri, was among the leading Roman print dealers of the period; his imprint here marks one of the earliest independent projects following his uncle’s death, continuing the tradition of monumental Italian urban cartography.

The plan’s orientation and decorative framing set a precedent for later urban representations of Palermo, embedding the city in a theatrical panorama of gardens, mountains, and sea that reflected both local geography and Baroque ideals of grandeur. In fine impression, this is among the most important printed maps of a Sicilian city and a milestone in the visual cartography of the Italian South.