Penisola dell’India di qua dal Gange et Isole intorno ad essa adiacenti.

Description

Spectacular color!

This is a 1683 Giacomo Cantelli da Vignola map of the Indian subcontinent, published in Rome by Giovanni Giacomo de Rossi and issued as part of the celebrated Mercurio Geografico atlas, one of the great Italian baroque cartographic productions of the 17th century. Drawn from the most current European sources available, including the travels of Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, Pietro della Valle, and the Discalced Carmelite missionaries, it presents the subcontinent in remarkable detail at one of the most consequential moments in Indian history: just three years before the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb would sweep south to extinguish the independent kingdoms of Bijapur and Golconda, both of which appear here still sovereign and intact.

Exquisitely hand-colored and anchored by one of the period’s most memorable cartouches, it is a distinguished example of Italian baroque cartography at its height.

The Map in Detail

Coverage extends from Gujarat and the Gulf of Cambay in the northwest to Bengal and the Bay of Bengal in the northeast, southward through the Deccan to Cape Comorin, with Ceylon (Sri Lanka) occupying the lower center and the Maldive Islands filling the left margin in their characteristic stippled atoll forms. The Andaman Islands appear at the right. The political geography is richly articulated: the states of the Great Mughal dominate the north; the kingdoms of Bijapur (Regno di Visapur), Golconda (Gro di Golconda), and Vijayanagar (Regno di Bisnagar) are distinguished by bold outline coloring in the Deccan interior; and the Tamil region and western Malabar coast are annotated with the European trading settlements (Goa, Calicut, and others) that mark the growing Portuguese and early Dutch and English presence.

The Maldives are rendered with particular care, their individual atolls named and illustrated. The cartouche in the lower right is a fine example of Italian baroque decoration: an Indian prince or Mughal dignitary bearing a spear stands beside a magnificent elephant, attended by a reclining figure, the whole framing the map’s title and the credits to Tavernier, Mandelsloh, Della Valle, and the Carmelite fathers.

Historical Context

The year 1683 was a pivotal one in South Asian history. The Mughal Empire under Aurangzeb was at the peak of its territorial extent but was already under strain from the Maratha resistance led by Shivaji’s successors. Independent Deccan Sultanates like the ones delineated on this map (e.g. Bijapur and Golconda) would fall to Mughal conquest in 1686 and 1687, respectively, erasing the political boundaries Cantelli so carefully recorded.

The sources Cantelli drew upon were the best available to any European cartographer of the period: Tavernier’s Six Voyages had been published in 1676 and represented the most detailed first-hand commercial intelligence on the subcontinent; Pietro della Valle’s Travels (published 1650s) had provided an earlier but still authoritative account; and the Discalced Carmelite missions in Persia and India had produced a body of geographic observation unavailable to previous cartographers.

Publication History and Census

This map was engraved and published in Rome in 1683 by Giovanni Giacomo de Rossi, at his press “alla Pace” (near Santa Maria della Pace), and was issued as part of the Mercurio Geografico overo Guida Geografica in tutte le Parti del Mondo, the landmark Italian baroque atlas produced in partnership between de Rossi and Cantelli da Vignola. The atlas appeared in multiple volumes and editions between 1692 and the early 18th century, with individual maps reissued under de Rossi’s successors. The map is represented in institutional collections but is scarce on the private market.

Cantelli was a pioneering figure in Italian cartography, developing the bold engraving style that would later be embraced and extended by Vincenzo Coronelli; his partnership with de Rossi produced some of the finest maps of the late 17th century.