Mercurio geographico overo guida geographica in tutte le partie del Modo..

Title

Mercurio geographico overo guida geographica in tutte le partie del Modo..

Description

Titlepage from the Atlas Mercurio Geographico from De Rossi

ca. 1743

Artist

Rossi (1627-1691)

Giovanni Giacomo De' Rossi was the son of the founder of the most important and active printing press of the 17th century in Rome. Begun in 1633 by his father Giuseppe (1570-1639), the press passed firstly to Giacomo and to his brother Giandomenico (1619-1653), and then later to Lorenzo Filippo (1682-?); in 1738 it became the Calcografia Camerale, from 1870 until 1945 the Regia Calcografica, and today it is known as the Calcografia Nazionale. Here are conserved, amongst many others, the plates of Giambattista Piranesi (1720-1778). Giacomo De' Rossi was the most involved of all the various family members who ran the press, and he worked between 1638 and 1691, and was to take the company to the height of its success. De Rubeis was Giacomo Rossi's Latinized name, under which some of his maps appear in the early part of his career.

Historical Description

The title page is one of the most important parts of an atlas or book. It appears at the beginning of the book and describes the actual title and the context or subject of the book or atlas. The title page often shows the title of the work, the person or institution responsible for its intellectual content, and the imprint, which includes the name and address of the publisher as well as the date of publication. Further information about the publication is often printed on the back of the title page.The first printed books or incunabula had no title pages: the text simply began on the first page, and the book was often identified by its opening words – the incipit. Maps were usually published in atlases, and atlases were books with titles. Even here, title pages were individual works of art. A publisher emphasized the importance of a book by introducing it with a spectacular entrée.Usually, the images on an atlas title page referred to the subject matter: measuring instruments, mythological, astronomical, religious, scientific, and allegorical references and facts were combined in a composition that represented the pride of scientific and intellectual progress. An atlas title page is often no more than an outstanding artistic and expressive cartouche.