1850 Bonucci City Plan or Map of Ancient Pompeii, Italy

This is a previously unrecorded proof state of the c. 1850 Carlo Bonucci city plan or map of ancient Pompeii, Italy. Destroyed during an eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D., this map details the archaeological site as it appears c. 1850. Superbly engraved and amazingly detailed, individual buildings are noted along the city's streets. Important sites around the city, including the Villa of Diomedes, several temples, the theatre and the amphitheater, are labeled. 137 additional sites are numerically identified and correspond with an index situated in the lower left corner.

An Unrecorded Proof State

Our research has led us to believe that the present example of Bonucci's map represents an unrecorded proof state. Every other example we have identified bears Bonucci's imprint beneath the title and a legend to the left . Both are absent here. The index in the lower left is also different, as the index on other digitized examples only includes 136 sites, whereas the present example's index includes 137. The rest of the map, including the fonts, appear to be identical, suggesting that the plate was subsequently updated to include Bonucci's imprint and the legend.

Publication History and Census

This map was created by Carlo Bonucci, the director of excavations at Pompeii from 1824 until 1850 or 1855. We note six examples cataloged in OCLC (all of which are likely to be the aforementioned edition bearing Bonucci's name, but alas they have not been digitized). These maps are part of the collections at Harvard University, the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, the Buffalo and Erie Public Library, Allegheny College, Duke University, and the Sistema Bibliotecario Ticinese in Lugano, Switzerland.