Antique Plan of Syracuse and its Five Ancient Cities, Sicily, 1847
US$986
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
1847
Mapmaker / artist
Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge
Publisher
Charles Knight and Co., 22 Ludgate Street, London
Technique
Steel Engraving
Coloring
Original hand color
Sheet size
35 × 43 cm (13.8 × 16.9 in)
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-14487-1-42
What the condition grades mean
Excellent
Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
Very good
Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
Good
Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
Fair
Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.
Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.
Condition
Light uneven toning, browner toward the edges. Handling soiling along the bottom and right edges. Scattered light foxing in the margin. All four corners complete.
About this sheet
This is an original antique city plan of Syracuse, steel engraved and published in the atlas of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. The plan covers the whole of ancient Syracuse, naming Ortygia, Acradina, Tyche, Neapolis and Epipolae, with the Great Port, the quarries, the walls of Dionysius running out to Euryalus and the ancient and modern names distinguished by typeface. Citations from Thucydides and Livy are printed beside the features they describe, and a view of Syracuse from the theater sits at the foot. The sheet credits Smyth, Thackeray and Arnold. The outline and water coloring is original hand color, applied by the publisher before the sheet was bound into the volume.
The sheet is plate number 206 in the third volume of the Society's atlas, Plans of Cities, Stars and Index to Places, published in London by Charles Knight at 22 Ludgate Street in 1847. The Society issued its maps in parts from 1829 onward, and this collected edition was lettered as a new edition corrected to the present time, which is why individual plates still carry their own earlier dates. The plate is lettered as engraved by B. R. Davies.
Reading the Athenian siege of 415 before Christ off a printed map is exactly what this sheet was made for, and the classical citations turn it into an argument rather than a picture. It is one of the few plans in the series devoted to an archaeological landscape rather than a living city. Framed simply in dark wood or a plain gilt frame it suits a study, a hallway or a dining room, and it is a natural gift for anyone with a tie to the place.
Light uneven toning, browner toward the edges. Handling soiling along the bottom and right edges. Scattered light foxing in the margin. All four corners complete.
This is an original antique map, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.
