Dell'Arcano del Mare

Dell'Arcano del Mare by Sir Robert Dudley is a 17th-century maritime encyclopaedia, the sixth part of which comprises a maritime atlas of the entire world, which is the first such in print, the first made by an Englishman, and the first to use the Mercator projection. The work was first published in Italian at Florence in 1645 and 1646 in three folio volumes.

Among other things, it is remarkable for its inclusion of a proposal for the construction of a navy in five rates (sizes) which Dudley designed and described. It was reprinted in Florence in a two volume folio edition in 1661 without the charts of the first edition.

The six-part work covered navigation, shipbuilding and astronomy, with 130 maps in two volumes (nos. 2 and 6) . Unlike the vast majority of his contemporaries, Dudley's maps are all his own and were not copied from other mapmakers. They have an instantly recognisable style, closer to the pre-17th-century manuscript portolan charts than the richly decorated maps of Mercator, Hondius and Blaeu.

The distinctive Baroque style of Dudley's charts is in part attributable to the elegant engraving of Antonio Francesco Lucini.

Later map-makers chose not to copy Dudley's style and so it remains unique in the annals of cartography. The engraving by Antonio Francesco Lucini, who stated that he spent 12 years and used 5,000 pounds of copper to produce the plates, is of exceptional quality, as is the calligraphy.

"Carta Particolare Che Mostra Il Capo Buona Speranza" is a very large sea chart of southwest Africa from Cape Fria to Cape of Good Hope, including Tristan da Cunha.

"Carta Quarta Generale di Europa", 1646 is one of the larger scale, generalised (Carta Generale) maps and shows the West coast of France, southward from La Rochelle, and the Northern coast of Spain. This is the least ornate of the styles adopted by Dudley with no adornment other than the cartouche and a compass rose and fairly plain calligraphy.

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