Jacopo de' Barbari and the Miraculous Map of Venice

Jacopo de' Barbari was a Venetian painter printmaker and engraver whose career reached its apogee in 1500 with the work you see in thumbnail form above: a map of the Venetian Forma Urbus. It's really the first time the Serenissima had her portrait taken. [Note to Veniceblog readers ... Alas, the link to the map site is now dead. I stay vigilant for new postings of the map, but so far nothing. Sorry.]

Below, for example, is the Rialto bridge as it looked in 1500. Antonio Da Ponte didn't complete its replacement -- the bridge we still see today -- until 92 years later.

Or here is the tip of La Giudecca by San Giorgio Maggiore -- the present site of the Cipriani Hotel before it glittered with the glitterati.

It's fun to glide around Venice in the 1500's with an omniscient eye. Many, many of the buildings and urban features are still easily recognizable. Not only can you see details like windows, doors and trees, but it is said that there are more than more than ten thousand individual chimney-pots that can be picked out.

The original prints are roughly 4 by 9 feet, printed on 6 sheets of paper. Nothing so large had ever been printed before. You can see a print and the original woodblocks used to print it in a wonderful exhibit in the Museo Correr in Piazza San Marco.

Consider this: manned flight didn't occur until nearly 3 centuries later. And while de' Barbari consulted detailed urban surveys that were done in 1498-99, he still had to imagine the whole scene in his mind's eye -- the relative heights of buildings, the complex perspective (still a young science at the time), the whole crazy labyrinth that is Venice.

It wasn't until the 18th century that de' Barbari was duly credited for the map. Many thought it was the handiwork of German Albrecht Durer, the genius painter/printmaker, who lived in Venice for a number of years and befriended de' Barbari.

Comments

[Anne Amison]

Hi, I tried to follow the link to the zoom-in Jacopo dei Barbari map, but it seems to have disappeared: I got an Italian advertising site! Can you help me track it down?
Thanks, Anne

[Roger Owens]

Hi, I have had the same frustrating experience as Anne.
However, a google search for 'de Barbari venice map' came up with http://timelessvenice.com, which advertises a CD-ROM and booklet published in the UK by Pallas Athene (http://www.pallasathene.co.uk/).
Amongst other things, the CD ROM compares selections from the Jacopo map with photographs of the present-day equivalent buildings.
Look in Amazon for 'Timeless Venice'.
Good hunting! and a warm welcome to the resumption of Veniceblog!

Roger Owens
==========================
I've got the timeless venice cd-rom. it's OK, but doesn't have the res the site that has been removed had. I've tried to find someone at the Correr Museum and plead with them to put a version online. I mean, why not? No luck.

N.

[Joann Zimmerman]

You might be able to get some mileage out of the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin. They have a complete map, and the University has had a digitizing initiative. (I have 8x10 photos of the six sections of their map, but am prevented by the terms of purchase from putting it online.) One of the great experiences is to work with the Correr's full-size facsimile; I was counting bridges by type (simple wood plank, fancy wood, stone).
============================================
I'll follow the lead. If you have a contact there,could you email the name to me at [email protected]? thatnks!

[Mark Robinson]

I am the author of the CD-ROM cited above -- sorry, no longer available. But I most strongly recommend a marvellous new book: "Venezia Citta Mirabile" in Italian, which goes into enormous detail. I have been begging the authors to bring out an English edition. I'm still hoping.

[Mihai Cucos]

On the subject of aerial views created centuries before flight was possible, I recently discovered "Bird's Eye view of Clandon" painted by Leendert Knyff in 1708 http://www.parksandgardens.ac.uk/component/option,com_parksandgardens/task,image/id,527/Itemid,292/
- somehow uncanny, especially since the building it depicts was demolished and replaced in the 1720s.

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But I most strongly recommend a marvellous new book: "Venezia Citta Mirabile" in Italian, which goes into enormous detail.

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[Ann Waltner]

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts has just purchased a copy of the map, and it's possible they will be digitizing it.

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[Natalia Muntean]

Jacopo de' Barbari done such amazing work and that to few hundred year ago

[Laura, Adult Tricycle]

I have seen the map in the Correr museum. What incredible talent Jacopo de Barbari possessed. The only regret I had when seeing the map and the original wooden blocks was that photos weren't allowed.

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