Original antique map by Matthäus Merian. It was originally engraved in Frankfurt for Martin Zeiller’s Itinerarium Italiae in 1640, and later republished in the grand collection Topographia Italiae.
To preserve the artistic clarity of Ancona’s stunning coastal hills, harbor, and sailing vessels, Merian kept text off the landscape. Instead, his design used a numbered indexing system to identfy the key features of the townscape.
Matthäus Merian was born in Switzerland but eventually settled in Frankfurt. He was trained as an engraver and he married into the publishing family of De Bry who were highly influential publishers of travel and other illustrated books. In 1623 Merian took control of the business, taking it to new heights. He continued to publish editions of Theodore de Bry's Grand Voyages and Petits Voyages, first issued in 1590, but Merian was also famous for his “Topographia”, a multi-volume series describing the regions of Germany, richly illustrated with town plans and views, as well as maps, and his small folio world atlases, containing maps and views of all parts of the world.
