Italy Map 1872 Gulf of Manfredonia Family Atlas Print - Rome, Naples, Foggia, Ancona

This Italy II was published by Edward Stanford of London in 1872 in The Family Atlas, whose eighty maps were engraved on steel under the supervision of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. The catalog records a scale of 1:1,750,000 and a sheet size of 42 by 30 centimeters, and the map is hand colored, with different regions shaded to differentiate areas. It covers a segment of Italy and shows mountain ranges, rivers and coastlines, with towns, cities and regions labeled. The Gulf of Manfredonia and the Adriatic Sea are the named features singled out in the catalog description. The credits name Murchison, Lubbock, Woodward and Key among the contributors to the atlas, which reflects the scientific breadth of the Society's project.

Italy II is map number 36 in the atlas, between Italy I for the north and Italy III for the south. It is a somewhat updated version of the 1865 issue, produced shortly after the unification that the catalog calls the Risorgimento. The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, a British educational body, hoped to bring reliable cartography to a wide public, and the steel engraving gave the sheets the crispness of finer work. Scales and coordinates add to its usefulness for travelers. The map shows the peninsula only a few years after Rome became its capital.

A collector of Victorian atlas maps, a family with roots on the Adriatic coast or in Apulia, or a reader of Italian history will find a quiet gift here. TheMapVault's Italy I and Italy III complete the Family Atlas set, whereas this Italy II is the middle sheet and the one that brings the Adriatic into view. 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.