Celeberrima urbs Venetiae

This bird's eye plan of the city of Venice and the larger islands is a revised and anonymous version of the Merian plan. Among the most handsome of the large-scale panoramas of Venice, its details and decoration include allegorical figures flanking the cartouche and a great deal of traffic on the water.

The pleasure-seeking Venetian Giacomo Casanova was born in 1725. Venice was just passing the peak of her military and commercial prime (the Ottoman Empire recaptured the Morea in 1718), and was fast becoming the pleasure capital of Europe – an unmissable destination for anyone on the Grand Tour.

First published in one of Janssonius’ great ‘town books’ in 1657, revisions include the addition of a beach on the south side of the Giudecca, a stretch of lagoon beyond it, and further buildings on the island of St Elena.

The copper printing plates were purchased by Frederick de Wit, and his imprint was added after 1694. This was erased and replaced by van der Aa’s imprint on a stone tablet, and published in this form in Graevius’ Thesaurus (1722) and the Galerie agréable du Monde (1729).

Condition & Materials
Copper engraving, two sheets joined, printed area measurement 42 x 103 cm. Blank verso. Published in the Thesaurus Antiquitatum et Historiarum Italiae and others works.

References
Schulz, Printed plans of Venice, VII.2 (iii)

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Van der Aa's Bird's-Eye Plan of Venice