CAMOCIO, Giovanni Francesco. Isole famose porti, fortezze, e terre maritime sottoposte alla Ser.ma Sig.ria di Venetia, ad altri Principi Christiani, et al Sig.or Turco..., Venice, alla libraria del segno di S.Marco [c. 1574].

Giovanni Francesco Camocio was a cartographer, publisher and printer. From 1558 onwards, he composed various island maps, which were very thorough and constituted a pioneering work for the era. The oldest engraving of this isolario dates from 1566 and the last from 1574. Many of the maps bear Camocio’s name. The work was published in various editions from 1571 to 1574, each time with variations in the compilation of maps.

The edition includes views of fortifications and cities and depictions of battles between Christians and Ottomans. Engravings can be divided into three groups: the first one includes Venetian possessions, islands, the Albanian and Dalmatian Adriatic coast, islands and coasts iof the Ionian sea as well as depictions of sieges and sea battles in those regions. The second group is comprised of islands of the Aegean, mainly those nearer Istanbul and the Bosporus. The third group of illustrations depicts Cyprus and the military events that took place on that island, together with a few isolated subjects. Camocio died in Venice in 1575, probably during the plague epidemic. His work was influenced by similar editions by S. Pinargenti (1573) and T. Porcacchi (1572), and in its turn influenced later isolaria such as those by D. Bertelli (1574) and G. Rosaccio (1598).
 
Written by Ioli Vingopoulou