The Round-up of the Little Big things

Jacopo de Barbari’s Map of Venice, created in 1500, and one of the most spectacular achievements of Renaissance printmaking, has recently been sold by Daniel Crouch Rare Books to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts for a seven figure sum.

Daniel Crouch comments, “It is refreshing and reassuring to know that institutions can still find the funds to acquire significant works of art. We are immensely proud to have played a key role in such an acquisition.” He adds, “It was a pleasure dealing with the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and we are extremely pleased to have significantly enriched their collection as well as finding ourselves in a position to execute this type of transaction when we have only recently launched the business.”

This celebrated 16th century birds-eye view map is a first edition: second state. It is one of only thirteen known examples and until recently was the only known version outside of an institution. The British Museum’s example of the map was featured as the centrepiece of the British Library’s exhibition ‘Magnificent Maps: Power, Propaganda and Art’ last year. This version has been in the private collection of the Massena (duc de Rivoli) family since the mid-18th century when it was first acquired by Andre Massena (1758-1817), 1st Duc de Rivoli and 1st Prince d’Essling, a leading French general of the revolutionary and Napoleonic wars.

Daniel Crouch Rare Books is a specialist dealer in antique atlases, maps, plans, sea charts and globes.