Descrittione dell Isola di Taprobana.

Title

Descrittione dell Isola di Taprobana.

Description

Map shows the island of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), titelcartouche and a wind rose. Italian edition.

ca. 1574

Artist

Porro (1520-1604)

Girolamo Porro (c. 1520 - after 1604) was an Italian engraver on wood and on copper. He was born at Padua, but worked during the greater part of his life in Venice. He engraved for a book entitled Imprese illustri di diversi, published by Camillo Camilli in 1535. He also executed the plates for the Orlando Furioso of Ariosto, published at Venice in 1584 , for the Funerali antichi di diversi Popoli et Natione, by Tommaso Porcacchi, published in 1574 and the portraits for the Sommario delle Vite do' Duchi di Milano by Scipione Barbuo, 1574. The maps in Girolamo Ruscelli's translation of the Geographia of Ptolemy, 1574, and the maps in Porcacchi's Isole piu famose del Mondo, first published in 1572, are likewise by him.

Historical Description

Sri Lanka was known from the beginning of British colonial rule as Ceylon. Its geographic location and deep harbours made it of great strategic importance from the time of the ancient Silk Road through to the modern Maritime Silk Road. Before the beginning of the Dutch governance, the island of Ceylon was divided between the Portuguese Empire and the Kingdom of Kandy, who were in the midst of a war for control of the island as a whole. The island attracted the attention of the newly formed Dutch Republic when they were invited by the Sinhalese King to fight the Portuguese. Dutch rule over much of the island was soon imposed. The Kingdom of Kandy was the last independent monarchy of Sri Lanka. In the late 18th century the Dutch, weakened by their wars against Great Britain, were conquered by Napoleonic France, and their leaders became refugees in London. No longer able to govern their part of the island effectively, the Dutch transferred the rule of it to the British, although this was against the wishes of the Dutch residing there. In 1972, the country became a republic named Sri Lanka, repudiating its dominion status.