Giuseppe Malombra (1595 c.-?)

Pratica universale facilissima et breve del misurare con la vista Parte I - II ... In Fiorenza, appresso Simone Ciotti, 1630 (colophon of the first part)

First and only edition. Very little is known about the author, who was the son of the painter Pietro Malombra and a had a brother, Bartolomeo; a long letter to the latter is reproduced at the beginning of the present work. “Apparently, M. did not follow a regular course of study ... even if the major work of M., the Pratica universale facilissima et breve del misurare con la vista, Florence 1630, proves a somewhat academic knowledge of the issues dealt with, in particular of the mathematical side of them. ... The publication in that year (1630) and with a dedication to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinando II de 'Medici, of his very easy and short universal practice of measuring by sight, would thus have had the purpose of certifying his valid competence in the cartographic field in order to guarantee him a well-paid job. ... The book is, in the first part, a remarkable technical treatise of cartographic perspective, in which the first known suggestions for the use of distance meters in cartography appear. ... The second part, on the other hand, is specifically dedicated to the relief and cartographic design of military fortifications, of their most important emergencies and of the territory on which they stand. The book contains about 60 valuable plates having as subject the use of the distance meter, whose matrices, made with the etching technique on copper, should be the work of Malombra himself.” (Preti, translated). A beautiful Baroque production, lavishly illustrated.

& Cesare Preti Malombra, Giuseppe in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani; Fowler 188; Berlin Katalog 1726; Riccardi I (2) 76-77 (“Raro”); Piantanida 4380; not in Kiely