RARE Lafreri school map of Asia by Fiamengo Arnoldo di Arnoldi. Based on Abraham Ortelius's atlas map of Asia, but with several revisions, most importantly the addition of the island of Luzon in the Philippines. A splendid strapwork cartouche in the lower-left corner contains a description of the continent in Italian. Sea monsters and sailing ships are scattered across the map. Strong impression.



Arnoldi produced a series of four maps of the continents for his patron, Scipione Bargaglia, whose armorial crest appears above the cartouche. Of the series, only the map of Europe is signed by Arnoldi himself. These maps are extremely rare and only two complete continent sets are known: in the Stanford University Library and at the John Carter Brown Library.



[AS513]