Ancient Italy Map 1835 School Atlas Print - Rome, Naples, Capua, Milan, Carthage

This hand-colored Italia Antiqua was engraved by A. Daggett & Co. of New Haven in 1835 and belongs to an uncommon composite school atlas of 71 maps, one diagram and three tables, bound in marbled boards with red leather corners. The catalog gives a scale of 1:5,000,000 and a size of 26 by 21 centimeters. The sheet shows ancient Italy with the Dalmatian coast of present-day Croatia to the east and part of Tunisia in the lower left, and Sicilia, Corsica and Sardinia are all labeled. Relief is drawn in fine hachures, and three bar scales give Milliaria Romana, Stadia Italica and Milliaria Germanica. The map's hand coloring in yellow and green marks the territories, and a legend headed Explanation in the upper right distinguishes cities, towns and ruins.

The map is densely annotated in Latin. Roma, Neapolis, Capua, Mediolanum and Carthago are among the major ancient cities, and the seas are named Mare Tyrrhenum, Mare Adriaticum and Mare Internum. Regions such as Etruria, Latium, Campania, Apulia and Calabria are outlined, with smaller labels for the ancient tribes within them. A legend in the upper right distinguishes major cities, smaller towns and ruins. It was made for students, at a time when classical education stood at the center of schooling in both Europe and the United States. Maps of this kind taught a generation to read the geography behind its Latin texts.

A teacher or student of Latin and Roman history, a family with roots in Rome, Naples or Milan, or a collector of early American school atlases will find a pleasing gift here. TheMapVault's Kiepert sheet of 1903 treats the same ancient land with German scholarly precision, whereas this 1835 New Haven sheet is an American schoolroom classic. 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.