Magna Graecia and Sicily, Greek Colonies Map after d'Anville, 1818

An original copper engraved map, uncolored, of southern Italy and Sicily, with the east coast of Sardaigne and the tip of Corse at left and the African coast around Carthage at lower left. Around the Golfe de Tarente and in the Bruttium are Sibaris depuis Thurii, Crotone and Rhegium; Sicily carries Syracuse, Agrigente, Selinunte, Lilybee, Gela, Catane and Mt. Etna, with the islands lettered Is. Eoliennes ou Vulcaniennes ou de Lipare to the north and Malte to the south. The Mer Tyrrhene, Mer Ionienne and Mer Libyque are named around the coasts.

The cartouche at left reads Carte de la Grande Grèce y compris la Sicile, dressée pour l'intelligence de l'histoire ancienne de Rollin par rapport à l'établissement des Colonies Grecques, aux guerres de Pyrrhus en Italie et des Carthaginois en Sicile. Par d'Anville, Géographe ord.re du Roi. The plate is numbered Pl. 7. above the upper right corner. At lower right are three bars: Milles des Romains, évalués 760 Toises, Stades des Grecs dont 8 valent un Mille and Lieues Françaises de 3000 Pas Géométriques. No engraver is named on the sheet.

The plate comes from the Atlas de Géographie Ancienne, published in Paris in 1818 by Ledoux et Tenré and printed by Didot le jeune to accompany the works of Charles Rollin (1661 to 1741), the French historian whose Histoire ancienne the map was drawn to illustrate. The title page states that the atlas was engraved after the original maps of Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville (1697 to 1782). Its table of plates carries a foreword signed by Ambroise Tardieu, géographe-graveur, who writes that the maps were copied with religious fidelity and that, charged with reviewing the proofs, he had only negligences and defects of execution to correct. Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, fought the Romans in southern Italy in the 280s and 270s BC.

This is an original antique map, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.