Ancient map of Padua by Giovanni Valle Giustinopolitano from the 18th century

The Zatta Antonio Paduan by Giovanni Valle Giustinopolitano, Venice 1784. An exquisite and detailed geographical map of the territory of Padua, derived from the monumental work Atlante Novissimo, illustrated and supplemented with observations and discoveries made by the most renowned and contemporary geographers, authored by Antonio Zatta, published in four volumes with maps of the entire world, between 1775–1785 at the Remondini printing house in Venice. In the upper left corner, within an elegant, rustic-style cartouche that departs from the Renaissance reminiscences of previous cartographers, there is the title “Il Padovano di Giovanni Valle Giustinopolitano di Nuova Projezione,” followed by the publisher’s signature Antonio Zatta and the date 1784. Beyond the graduated margin, the cardinal directions are indicated, and in the lower left corner, there is the engraver’s signature G. Zuliani inc., and to the right, the designer G. Pitteri wrote. The title emphasizes that the cartographic source used by Zatta in creating the map is Giovanni Valle’s model.

This beautiful map is oriented so that north is at the top and presents only the area of Padua in a rather innovative way, with bordering provinces marked with large letters (Trentino at the top, Vicenza on the left, and Polesine di Rovigo at the bottom), but without providing their characteristics or geographic representations; this allowed, in combination with the coloring of internal boundary contours, to focus attention on the actual subject of the map.

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