1860 Naymiller / Allodi Chart of Comparative Rivers and Waterfalls

A hand-colored 1860 comparative chart of world rivers and waterfalls, prepared by Filippo Naymiller and engraved by Pietro Allodi. This is one of the few examples of a comparative geographical chart published in Italian.

A Closer Look

The upper-left half of the sheet consists of the world's longest rivers, divided by continent, with riverside cities and settlements, forts, tributaries, adjoining lakes, and mountains near the source noted. At bottom-right is a depiction of the world's tallest waterfalls emanating from a mountain, with their height noted in 'Parisian' (French) feet. The note at bottom-left explains the placement of the Amazon first among American rivers, even though the Mississippi is longer (at least by terms employed here). The determination of the length of rivers would change somewhat in the following decades as measurements improved and Europeans gained a better understanding of the interior of other continents. Most notably, Lake Victoria had only just been discovered by Europeans in 1858, setting off a heated debate among Britain's geographic community. It was not firmly established as the source of the Nile for some years afterward.

Publication History and Census

This chart was prepared by Filippo Naymiller, engraved by Pietro Allodi, and published by Francesco Pagnoni in Milan around 1860. It may have appeared in the scarce atlas Atlante universale di geografia antica e moderna. In any event, this chart is only cataloged in the OCLC among the holdings of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin.