Southern Italy Map 1872 Sicily Family Atlas Print - Palermo, Catania, Messina, Reggio Calabria, Naples

The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge is credited with this Italy III, which Edward Stanford of London issued in 1872 in The Family Atlas, a collection of eighty maps engraved on steel. The catalog gives a scale of 1:1,750,000 and a size of 42 by 30 centimeters, and the map is hand colored. It focuses on the southern part of Italy, with Sicily prominent, parts of the mainland including Calabria, and the Lipari Islands. The catalog names Palermo, Catania and Messina in Sicily and Reggio in Calabria, along with the Mediterranean Sea and the Gulf of Taranto, and the mountains are drawn in hachures. It is number 37 in the atlas, and the credits also name Murchison, Lubbock, Woodward and Key among the contributors, which reflects the scientific breadth of the Society's project.

This sheet is a somewhat updated version of the 1865 issue and is the third of three maps of Italy in the atlas. The engravers named in the catalog include J. & C. Walker and Philip Smith, working under the supervision of the Society, whose aim was to bring accurate maps to a wide public at moderate prices. By 1872 the Kingdom of Italy had been united under Victor Emmanuel II, and Rome, taken in 1870, was now its capital. A map of the toe and island of Italy from that time shows the south as part of a single nation for the first time.

A reader of Victorian atlases, a family with roots in Sicily or Calabria, or a collector who wants the Italian south in English will find a pleasing gift here. TheMapVault's Italy I and Italy II sheets complete the three-map set, whereas this Italy III is the southern sheet of the group. Like every print in the collection, it ships unframed and is available in a full range of sizes, from a compact desk piece to a large-format statement print.