Italy Map 1865 Victorian Atlas Print - Rome, Naples, Florence, Palermo, Valletta

This General Map of Italy, including Sicily, Malta, Sardinia, Corsica and other islands, was published in London by Letts about 1865. It is a fine example of this later edition of the map made by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, republished by Letts, the English firm known for its diaries and atlases. The sheet shows the whole of Italy together with the islands of the title, so Sicily, Malta, Sardinia and Corsica appear alongside the mainland. It is an overview map of the country, made for the home atlas, and it reached a wide audience through the long working life of the Society's engraved copper. Because the Society's maps were reissued by other publishers, the same geography reached readers under several imprints.

The date places it in the first years of the Kingdom of Italy, which was proclaimed in 1861 after Garibaldi's campaign and the plebiscites. In 1865 the capital moved from Turin to Florence, and Rome was still papal, since it would not become the capital until 1870. Malta stayed British, which is why an English map includes it beside Italy. The map is therefore a record of a country still unfinished, with its borders and capital not yet settled. Letts reissued many Society maps, and this one shows how long their copper survived. It is a modest but useful sheet for the study of those years.

For a student of Victorian atlases, a family with roots in Florence, Sicily or Malta, or a collector of the later SDUK editions will find a useful gift here. TheMapVault's 1860 edition of the same map belongs to the year of Garibaldi, whereas this 1865 Letts printing comes from the first years of the new kingdom. 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.