Naples Map 1845 City Plan Print with Castle Views - Castel Nuovo, Castel Sant'Elmo, Pausilipo, Vesuvius

Neapel, Napoli, 1845 is a city plan of Naples engraved for Meyer's Grosser Hand-Atlas, which the Bibliographisches Institut of Hildburghausen issued in 1860 in 170 maps. The catalog credits George Arnald, Joseph Meyer and the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, and notes that it was copied from a map the Society published in 1835. The plan measures 39 by 36 centimeters at a scale of 1:17,400, with relief shown in hachures and a decorative border. Two inset views show the Castello Nuovo and the Castello St. Elmo, and a further view shows Naples from the Hugel des Pausilipp, taken from a painting by G. Arnald. The catalog calls the atlas Meyer's grandest production, a real tour de force, and the plan inherits its fine engraving.

The plan shows streets, buildings and landmarks in detail, and the two castles stand for the city's defenses, the Castello Nuovo by the harbor and the Castello St. Elmo on the hill above. In 1845 Naples was the capital of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and one of the largest cities in Europe, a major center of commerce and culture. The view from the hill of Pausilipo gives the artistic setting, the bay with its curve of coast. Meyer's atlas is a grand German work, and its fifty maps of the Americas include many derived from Tanner and Mitchell.

A traveler who has loved the Bay of Naples, a family with roots in Campania, or a collector of city plans will find a lasting gift here. TheMapVault's Meyer sheet of 1849 shows the whole of Sicily and Calabria in the same German style, whereas this 1845 plan is devoted to a single city and its castles. 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.