File:Print, broadside, map (BM 1867,1012.694 1).jpg

Height: 565 millimetres (overall)

Width: 955 millimetres

(Text from Michael Bury, 'The Print in Italy 1550-1620', 2001 cat.118) This is a broadside made up of a series of different elements. 1. An engraved and etched map of Venice with a legend of xxxv + 170 place names below it; inscribed 'Francesco Vallegio f.' 2. Two engraved strips flanking the map, with the portraits of 94 Doges of Venice from Paolo Lucio Anafesto (assassinated 717) up to Francesco Contarini (1623-24), inscribed 'Francesco Vallegio et / forma / in Venetia'. 3. A sheet of letterpress with a description of the origins of the city and a description of the site and its nature. This was printed by Nicolò Missirini in 1622. The inscribed names of Valegio on both the map and the series of Doges are accompanied by erasures. These are signs of the removal of the name of Catarino Doino, with whom Valegio was in partnership c.1610-1614. The map is a close copy of Giacomo Franco's of 1597, which in turn was a copy of Paolo Forlani's map, first published in 1565. As Schulz pointed out, the Redentore which had been built to the design of Andrea Palladio since the original map was made (dedicated 1592, see Burns, 1975, p.145), is indicated here by a name, but the church is not there; the building to which the name is attached is S. Croce di Giudecca, which lies rather further to the East. The first state of the series of Doges will have been produced in the reign of Leonardo Donà (1606-1612) for there is an obvious erasure in the panel below his portrait and the death date of 1612 has been added. The last five Doges will have been inserted in order to update the print. Although each has his name, portrait and coat of arms, they lack the brief written commentaries that accompany all the earlier ones. The last of the Doges represented, Francesco Contarini, held office in the years 1623-24; this provides a terminus post quem for the assembly of the broadside in its present form. The components could be issued separately. The British Museum has a slightly earlier state of Valegio's series of Doges, ending with Antonio Priuli (1618-23).