Italy Map 1967 Pergamon World Atlas Print - Rome, Milan, Naples, Palermo, Venice

The Polish Army Topography Service compiled this detailed political and physical map of Italy, which Pergamon Press of Oxford and the Polish Scientific Publishers of Warsaw issued in 1967 for the Pergamon World Atlas. The catalog records a scale of 1:2,500,000 and describes tinted colors used for the relief and the sea depths, with the Alpine north in a deep red and the lowlands and coasts in lighter shades. Two insets give closer views of Palermo and Venice, and the sheet is printed on the beige paper used throughout the atlas. This was the English edition of the Polish Atlas Swiata, a mid-century reference sheet instead of a decorative antique. The map measures 40 centimeters wide and 53 tall, and the names of the Pergamon imprint, the Polish Scientific Publishers and the army topographers all appear in its credits.

The atlas was enormous, weighing nearly 5.5 kilograms and holding 48 square meters of maps, with more than 400 thematic maps beside the physical and political sheets. Rome, Milan and Naples are the major cities named in the catalog description, and the Apennine Mountains and the principal rivers carry the physical story. Italy in 1967 was in the full swing of its postwar industrial growth, with cities expanding and road and rail networks reaching south, and the symbols for roads, railways and boundaries record that infrastructure. The sheet was printed in Warsaw by Wojskowe Zaklady Kartograficzne, a reminder that Poland produced some of the finest atlases of the age.

A collector of mid-century cartography, a family with roots in Milan, Naples or Sicily, or anyone who admires clear physical relief will find a distinctive gift here. TheMapVault's De Agostini sheet of 1922 gives the Italian view of the same peninsula, whereas this 1967 sheet is a Polish compilation in red and pale tints. 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.