Pierre Mortier (1661-1711)
Les Environs de Venise [Venice and Its Environs]
Solemnité du Bucentaure Qui Se Celebre à Venise Le Jour de L'Ascension
[Solemn Procession of the Bucentaur Celebrating Ascension Day at Venice]
Pierre Mortier, Amsterdam: c. Early 18th Century
Hand-colored engravings
Venise: 10.25 x 16.5 inches ruled border; 11.5 x 17.75 inches overall
Solemnité: 11.25 x 15.75 inches ruled border; 12.5 x 17.25 inches overall
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Pair of Views of Venice, Italy
Pierre Mortier: Early 18th Century
Pierre Mortier: Early 18th Century
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Les Environs de Venise
Solemnité du Bucentaure
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Two views of Venice, Italy, published by Pierre Mortier, a French map publisher working in Amsterdam. Les Environs de Venise is a map of the Gulf of Venice decorated with several detailed depictions of Venetian galleys in the water, a coat of arms in the upper left corner, and a numbered key along the right edge.
Solemnité du Bucentaure presents a bird's-eye view of a procession of boats centered on the doge's barge, the Bucentaur, passing the church of San Nicolas de Lido to perform the annual ceremony of the "Wedding of the Sea." Performed annually on Ascension Day from the Middle Ages until 1789, the ritual symbolically married Venice to the Adriatic Sea as an assertion of Venetian maritime power. At the culmination, the doge dropped a ring consecrated by the pope into the water. Known in Italian as the Bucintoro, the grand, oar-driven boat is seen here flying the Venetian flag, with the doge and church officials on a platform at the stern. The other boats include gondolas of varying sizes carrying dignitaries, each labeled with its name, such as the Gondola of the French Ambassador and Gondola of the Papal Nuncio. A version of this map was later republished after Pierre Mortier's death by the successor firm Covens and Mortier.
Covens and Mortier was an Amsterdam firm formed in 1721 by Johannes Covens in partnership with the heirs of Pierre Mortier. Mortier, a Frenchman, had established a publishing house in Amsterdam by around 1685 and published or reissued maps by some of the great French and Dutch mapmakers of the late 17th and early 18th centuries, including Guillaume de L’Isle, Carel Allard and Jan Jansson. After Mortier’s death in 1711, the family continued the business and then joined with Covens. Covens and Mortier issued several atlases, including its major work Atlas Nouveau, published in nine folio volumes between 1711 and 1760. The firm also published separately issued world and continent maps.
Cartouche of Venise: Les Environs de Venise/ Aamsterdam Chez Pierre Mortier Avec Privilege.
References:
"Bucentaur." Originally in 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. V04, p. 713. Online at Online Encyclopedia. http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/BRI_BUN/BUCENTAUR_Ital_bucintoro_.html (23 August 2006).
"Les Environs de Venise." Gettysburg College Digital Collections. http://gettysburg.cdmhost.com/u?/p4016coll7,141 (23 August 2006).
Potter, Jonathan. Collecting Antique Maps: An Introduction to the History of Cartography. London: Jonathan Potter Ltd., 1988, rev. 1999. pp. 56, 102.