Published in Rosaccio’s ‘Discorso,... nel quale si trattabrevemente dell nobilita,...’ (1610).



 (c1540-1620) was a physician from Pordenone, “who, when not healing the sick and selling elixirs from a market stall set up in a square outside the grand ducal palace, occupied himself with writing popular texts about a variety of topics, including cosmography, genealogy, and medicine” (Adams). He arrived in Florence in about 1594, when he joined the 'Arte dei Medici e Speziali' as a bookseller. Giuseppe employed his son, Alouisio, not only to engrave this map, which is signed by him lower right “Alouisio Rosaccio fecit”, and the frontispiece to the ‘Discorso,... nel quale si trattabrevemente dell nobilita,...’ from which it comes, but also his ‘Viaggio da Venezia a Costantinopoli’ (1598), and his map of Italy (1609). 

Rodney Shirley (2001, 268) describes this charming small map as "curiously elaborate". It certainly packs in a great deal of decorative and cartographic detail despite its size. Based on 

’s own world map prepared in 1598–1599, which was in turn derived from Mercator’s double hemisphere world map of 1595, it retains the characteristic but now discounted ‘bulge’ to South America.

The western hemisphere is surrounded by splendid windheads with lower ones depicted as grinning skulls reflecting the belief that the plague, always prevalent in the summer, was blown in from the south. In a medallion below the globes is the Medici coat of arms, with the six balls here representing continents as well as the conjectural southern and northern lands. Just in case the point had been missed, Rosaccio has added the letters of his patron’s name to the balls.

Other smaller but charming vignettes illustrate geographical and natural phenomena, such as the earth divided into temperature zones according to 

’s theory, the positions of the Tropics and the circumference of the world as per Claudius Ptolemy. Despite its modest scale, Rosaccio has created a visual gem of geographical information.

 (c. 1540–1620) was a physician from Pordenone, "who, when not healing the sick and selling elixirs from a market stall set up in a square outside the grand ducal palace, occupied himself with writing popular texts about a variety of topics, including cosmography, genealogy, and medicine" (Adams 2017). He arrived in Florence in about 1594, when he joined the 'Arte dei Medici e Speziali' as a bookseller. Rosaccio employed his son, Alouisio, not only to engrave this map, which is signed by him lower right "Alouisio Rosaccio fecit", and the frontispiece to the ‘Discorso,...nel quale si trattabrevemente dell nobilita’ from which it comes, but also his ‘Viaggio da Venezia a Costantinopoli’ (1598), and his map of Italy (1609).

A "curiously elaborate" map, this work was published in conjunction with 

’s final cartographic work ‘Discorso’. It is roughly based on Rosaccio’s previous world map prepared in 1598–1599, which was in turn derived from 

’s double hemisphere world map of 1595. The only map to accompany the work, it conveyed a variety of concepts centred on a double hemisphere projection, eight diagrams, and four vignettes in addition to the decorative and dedicatory elements.

It is the rich decorative borders which make this map so unique. Dominating the centre of the map is the medallion portrait of Cosimo II de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and ruler of Florence. In about 1610, Cosimo adopted a fashionable moustache and beard, necessitating Rosaccio to amend the copperplate accordingly; the addition of the moustache distinguishes the first and second states of the plate. 

It is the wonderfully rich borders which make this map so special. Dominating the centre of the map is the medallion portrait of Cosimo II de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and ruler of Florence. In about 1610, Cosimo adopted a fashionable moustache and beard, no doubt making it politic for Rosaccio to amend the copper-plate accordingly, and it is the additional moustache which distinguishes state 2 from state 1.

Double-page engraved copperplate double-hemisphere map of the world, surrounded by vignettes of alternative projections.

Rosaccio’s World Map, with portrait of Cosimo II Medici