CRIMEAN PENINZULA RUSSIA UKRAINE 1784 VAUGONDY & SANTINI UNUSUAL ANTIQUE MAP

Description: Striking and highly detailed interesting 1779 Francesco Santini's edition of the 1771 Rigobert Bonne's copper engraved map of the West Africa. The map labels the Slave Coast "Cote des Esclaves" and includes there a note about the Kingdom of Dahome and how it had conquered the Kingdoms of Ardra and Juda. Juda is shown as a city in the Slave Coast. The map extends from Cape Verde Islands to  Angola. The map is filled with good topographic detail on ciies, towns, villages, rivers, lakes, reliefs and islands. The map notes several Natvie Kingdoms.

It includes an inset of the Gold Coast after d'Anville titled "Cote d'Or par le Sr. D'Anville".
 
A beautifully engraved landscape-style title cartouche embellished with palms, trees, a crocodile and a hyena and three simple mileage scales cartouche adorn the map. 

Date: 1779 ( dated )

Dimension: Paper size approx.: cm 65,9 x 52,4

Condition: Very strong and dark impression on good paper. Paper with chains and wiremarks. Map old original colored. Title cartouche contemporary handcolored. Wide margins. Corners partially missing. Small foxing. Map folded. Conditions are as you can see in the images.   

Mapmakers: Rigobert Bonne (October 6, 1727 - September 2, 1794) was one of the most important French cartographers of the late 18th century. Bonne was born in Ardennes à Raucourt, France. He taught himself mathematics and by eighteen was a working engineer. During the War of the Austrian Succession (1740 - 1748) he served as a military engineer at Berg-op-Zoom. It the subsequent years Bonne became one of the most respected masters of mathematics, physics, and geography in Paris. In 1773, Bonne succeeded Jacques-Nicolas Bellin as Royal Cartographer to France in the office of the Hydrographer at the Depôt de la Marine. Working in his official capacity, Bonne compiled some of the most detailed and accurate maps of the period - most on an equal-area projection known erroneously as the 'Bonne Projection.' Bonne's work represents an important step in the evolution of the cartographic ideology away from the decorative work of the 17th and early 18th century towards a more scientific and practical aesthetic. While mostly focusing on coastal regions, the work of Bonne is highly regarded for its detail, historical importance, and overall aesthetic appeal. Bonne died of edema in 1794, but his son Charles-Marie Rigobert Bonne continued to publish his work well after his death,

Francesco and Paolo Santini (c.1729-1793)
 
François [Francesco] Santini (fl. 1776 - 1784) was an Italian cartographer and map publisher based in Venice. He acquired the printing plates of Vaugondy’s Atlas Universel …, a commercial and cartographic success, with widespread influence on mapmakers throughout Europe. Together with his brother Paolo,  a Venetian engraver also known for religious prints and cartographic work, he commissioned a new set of plates and reissued the atlas in 1776. Both cartographers were active in roughly the same period and reissued maps of earlier French cartographers ranging from Vaugondy, to Jaillot, to De L'Isle, to D'Anville. Both cartographers also worked with the Venetian Remondini publishing house. The following year, Paolo Santini assigned all his publication rights to M. Remondini, who in 1777 reissued the same atlas but with his name.
 
Remondini (fl. c. 1657 - 1861) were a family of printers who worked originally based in Bassano del Grappa, near Venice. Giovanni Antonio Remondini (1634-1711), the family patriarch, was born in Padua in 1634. In 1657, he took a home the main square of Bassano where he opened a shop drapes, wool, silk and iron tools. He also sold woodcuts of saints which proved popular with local farmers who believed they bought spiritual protection. When Giovanni died in 1711 his printing business fell into the hands of his son, Joseph Remondini. In 1750 Joseph expended the family business into Venice proper. Having several paper factories established by Giovanni Antonio, the Remondini were in a position to undercut competitors in Venice. The Remondini employed a number of talented engravers, including Paolo Santini, an Abbot who specialized in sacred images as well as cartography. Their corpus includes several beautifully produced atlases, though, cartographically speaking, little in the way of original work. The family fell into decline following the Napoleonic invasions, finally closing their doors in 1861. Most of the Remondini family's work is today preserved in the Museum of Bassano del Grappa and the Piccolo Remondini Museum of Vicenza.