Southern Italy Map 1851 Illustrated Vignette Atlas Print - Naples, Palermo, Cagliari, Benevento

This striking decorative map of Southern Italy was published by John Tallis of London in 1851 and engraved for R. Montgomery Martin's Illustrated Atlas. It includes Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily along with the southern peninsula. The vignettes show the Carnival, Benevento, Naples and Vesuvius, and the Festival of the Vintage, and two figures from the Commedia dell'arte stand in the borders beside a human figure. Tallis was one of the last great decorative map makers, and his maps are prized for such vignettes of indigenous scenes and people. The result is a map that is also a small gallery of southern Italian life. The sheet combines geography with festivals and folklore, a hallmark of the Tallis atlases and a large part of their appeal.

Tallis published his Illustrated World Atlas for the Great Exhibition of 1851, and John Rapkin engraved the maps. The scenes on this sheet chose the south's most famous images, the bay of Naples under its volcano and the old town of Benevento, along with the harvest festival and the Carnival. Italy in 1851 was still divided, and the south belonged to the Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, with Sardinia part of the Piedmontese crown. For British readers of the Great Exhibition year it offered both geography and a view of the picturesque, in the manner of the Grand Tour. Few maps of the age make the south feel so festive.

Anyone who loves decorative vignette maps, a family with roots in Naples, Sicily or Sardinia, or a traveler who has watched Vesuvius across the bay will find a lively gift here. TheMapVault's Tallis Northern Italy completes the pair, whereas this southern sheet is crowded with festivals and figures. 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.