Beschreibung:

ANONYMOUS. Messina . No imprint: [third quarter of the 16th century]. Engraved bird's-eye plan of Messina on a cut-down sheet, 183 x 242mm. Title along upper margin, key along lower margin, the seas and harbour decorated with smallships and fishing vessels. (Trimmed to plate mark and window-mounted, some discolouration to margins.) A verk dark impression of this early plan of Messina as seen from the other side of the Stretto di Messina, including Reggio di Calabria. It relates in form and size to the earlier plan published by Donato Bertelli in his Le vere imagini et descrittioni piu nobili citta del mondo , Venice: 1572 (see lot 992). The present plan differs from Bertelli most notably in the arrangement of the harbour buildings, the depiction of the Royal Palace, and the presence a key in the cartouche along the lower margin. No watermark.