The Gallery of Maps

Edizioni Musei Vaticani, 2011 4to (26.5 cm), 122, [6] pp. Laminated wrappers with flaps. A guide to the Gallery of Maps in the Vatican. "The Gallery of the Geographical Maps is 120 meters long and represents one of the most fascinating areas within the Vatican Museums. In 1581 the then Pontiff, Pope Gregory XIII, commissioned the famous cosmographer, geographer and mathematician of the time, Ignazio Danti, to manage the ambitious project of depicting the entire Italian peninsula along the gallery walls. The friar was joined in the Capital by a well-known group of artists, such as the brothers Matteo and Paolo Bril, Girolamo Muziano and Cesare Nebbia. They decorated the walls with forty maps depicting the Italian regions and islands including perspective views of its most prominent port cities (Genoa, Venice, Civitavecchia and Ancona) as well as two fundamental episodes from the history of Christianity: the Siege of Malta by the Turks, and the Battle of Lepanto with the defeat of the Turkish navy." (from the publisher's synopsis)