1570 Lafreri Map of Crete

This is an immaculate example of a rare map of the Island of Crete, attributed to Antonio Lafreri. The east-oriented map illustrates the island's topography based on the late model exhibited first in the 1513 Waldseemuller map, and introduced to Venice via Matteo Pagano's 1538 map.

A Closer Look

The map's engraving is characterized by its neat, pictorial mountains, boldly hachured coastlines, painstakingly spaced and legible lettering, and delicately engraved decorative elements: two sea monsters, a small fishing boat, and a war galley. As with the map's precursors, this one includes the Labyrinth of Daedalus: the legendary maze built for King Minos to contain the bull-headed Minotaur. While often considered to have been constructed at Knossos, recent archaeology suggests a series of tunnels at Gortyn, which is tantalizingly close to the location of the labyrinth symbol on these maps. This corresponds with Gortyna, the Cretan capital in the 1st century AD. Among other notable and tantalizing features are colonies of cave-dwellings, yet another sign that the map was at least in part the result of actual visitation: such dwellings remain extant.

Attribution and Sequence

Dating the map is problematic, given its lack of imprint. Bifolco and Ronco credit the map to Antonio Lafreri, citing Destombes' attribution based on Lafreri's typography. A collection of maps of Greek islands by Lafreri were issued together, including this one, Rhodes, Cyprus, and others. All share the same format and exhibit many of the same stylistic elements. Bifolco and Ronco suppose this map to be a copy of the Forlani-Duchetti map published in Venice in 1570, which is certainly possible. The Venetian mapmakers regularly exchanged plates and maps with their Roman colleagues, such as Lafreri. Certainly, one of these two maps was copied from the other as their composition is virtually identical, down to the cartouche. The typography of the present map, in almost every respect, is better considered and more neatly spaced, and although the cartouche text is the same in both, Duchetti has compressed the text to fit imprint and the date on its last line. Such a compositional difference suggests the priority of the Lafreri before the Duchetti. Also, a corrected misplacement of the placename 'Spachio P.' can just be discerned above the placename 'Opon P.' on the Lafreri, an error that we suspect would be unlikely were the engraver following closely the model of the Duchetti, and not the other way around. We note the presence of this anonymous map listed among those in a Lafreri composite atlas which auctioned in 2014, which was dated circa 1565. While it is not at all impossible that later maps would be tipped in to that work, we cannot discount the possibility that the present map was executed prior to 1570, even substantially so.

It is certain that this plate was among those inherited by Duchetti in 1577 at Lafreri's death, because it was among those that had passed via Duchetti ultimately to Giovanni Orlandi, who added to it his own imprint and dated it in 1602. It is interesting that Orlandi came by this plate, and not the one bearing Duchetti's imprint: a number of the Greek island maps attributed to Lafreri also appeared, reengraved, with Duchetti's imprint, and some of these appear in states also bearing Orlandi's 1602 imprint.

Publication History and Census

This map was engraved by Antonio Lafreri, who sold it separately and included it in his composite atlases. One example is separately cataloged in OCLC, appearing in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. We are aware of several examples appearing in Atlases factice, including an example in the Library of Congress. The map is extremely rare on the market.