Description

Uncommon highly detailed map shows the peninsula Istria between Trieste in Italy, followed by the Slovenian and Croatian coast to Rijeka (Fiume in the east).

The map was engraved and published by a Venetian map maker Paolo Santini. Santini published a more common larger map of Istria with a title Nouvelle Carte de l’Istrie Suivant le Plan dressé sur les lieux about 10 years before, yet this smaller version is not a copy of a previous one, which was geographically extremely incorrect. The new version was completely corrected and new information were added, especially for the interior.  

At the approximately same time a magnificent large map of Istria by Giovanni Valle (1752 – 1819) was published with a title Carta dell’Istria, with correct lines of the coast. Valle, born in Koper (Capodistria), on the north coast of Istria, published this map in 1792 in Venice. The fact that Valle’s map did not influence Santini’s shows, that this map was probably published shortly before 1792.  

This map is very rare on the market. We could not trace any other examples in the libraries worldwide. 

References: Lago/R., Histriae S. 258, Tav. CXXIV.