LAFRERI

For over 150 years the Society of Antiquaries of the Land van Waas (Koninklijke Oudheidkundige Kring van het Land van Waas, Sint-Niklaas, Belgium, or KOKW) has been in the possession of a so-called ‘Lafreri’-atlas. Recognized since 2012 as one of Flanders’s masterpieces, its most recent maps date from 1567, making this one of the earliest Italian composite atlases.

Now that the society is exhibiting the individual maps in the Mercator Museum, Ghent University (Department of Geography) publishes her newest research results in Lafreri. Italian Cartography in the Renaissance.

The publication situates the collection of maps within the sixteenth- century world of printers and publishers, where atlases, like print collections, were assembled to order. Also highlighted is the role of the atlas in the journalism of the day, for like press photos avant la lettre some of the maps, the so-called news prints, bring us pictorial reports of current events such as the Italian wars and the Great Siege of Malta. A must for map lovers – and for the simply curious!