Italy, Bay of Pozzuoli, Napels Giacomo Lauro, 1626, Topographia Puteolorum

17th century copper engraved map of Mare Puteolanum, today the Bay of Pozzuoli, right next to Naples in Italy. Puteoli, today called Pozzuoli, was a Greek colony but became Roman from 194 BC. It was located on the coast of Campania and it was an important trading port for the grain ships from Alexandria. It is about 250 kilometers from Rome. The name Puteoli came from the sulfuric smell in the area that was caused by the extinct volcano Solfatara and by several sulfur springs.

The engraving is taken from ´Splendore dell antica e moderna Roma ...´, published in Rome in 1626 (first edition started being published in parts from 1612 onwards). The map is explained in Latin legends below the engraving.

Giacomo Lauro (or Jacobus Laurus) was an engraver, printer and print publisher. Active in Rome from 1583, when described as 'intagliatori di rame' (Ashby p.362). 17 March 1598 he applied for and was granted a 10-year papal privilege for an unspecified number of unnamed religious prints (Leuschner). Giacomo Lauro’s place and date of birth are unknown, although his signature “Jacobus Laurus Romanus” seems to indicate that the artist was proudly born Roman.

Lauro's earliest dated prints are of 1582 (Martyrdom of St Catherine), and carry the address of C. Duchetti (Ashby, 1926-27, p.362). He also worked for Panzera, c.1589 (Bertolotti). From 1590 he tried to establish himself as a publisher of his own work . He acquired and restored old plates, published copies of classic prints as Marcantonio's St Paul preaching (B.XIV.50.44). He accepted commissions, as the map of Rocca Contrada, 1594 (Anselmi). He probably acquired plates from Jacob Matham which he published in 1598 (Widerkehr). His 'Antiquae Urbis Splendor' was published in parts from 1612. In the volumes issued in 1614 and 1615 Lauro refers to having worked on the study of antiquity for 28 years which would mean that he began this work about 1586 (see Ashby, 1926-27, p.362).

Excellent. Never folded. Strong paper. Ample margins.