Map of Morea

This originally hand-colored map is from Tomaso Porcacchi & Girolamo Porro’s L’Isole piu famose del Mondo… This is from the second and expanded edition of the work which added several more maps to this “island book”. It was published in Venice in 1576 by G. Anglieri for Simone Glaignani & G. Porro. The maps were completed by Girolamo Porro.

The work included maps of the islands of Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean and of the Americas. The world map in the work is a smaller depiction of the Paolo Forlani map first produced in 1565. The work featured fascinating illustrations of islands and peninsulas of the world, often surrounded by sea monsters and ships.

Tomaso Porcacchi (1530-1585) was an Italian writer. He worked for the printer Gabriele Giolito on a collection of Greek history. He published works on poetry, history, antiquities, and geography.