Calecut Nuova Tavola

1561

Copper engraving on paper

7.5 x 9.5 in (19.05 x 24.13 cm)

Calecut Nuova Tavola — An Early Italian Map of India and the Indian Ocean

Copper-engraved map depicting India, with emphasis on the Deccan, Malabar Coast, Coromandel Coast, Bengal, and the Maldive Islands. Includes a graticule border, regional toponyms in Italian and Latin, stylised mountain chains, river systems, coastal settlements, and maritime zones labelled 'Mare de India' and 'Golfo de Bengala'. The Maldives archipelago is prominently rendered in the Indian Ocean. Printed on laid paper.

A rare and finely engraved mid-sixteenth-century Italian map of India, titled Calecut Nuova Tavola, reflecting Europe’s rapidly expanding geographic knowledge following the Portuguese opening of Indian Ocean trade routes. Centred on the Indian peninsula, the map delineates the Deccan, Malabar, and Coromandel coasts, extending eastward to Bengal and southward to the Maldive Islands, which are rendered as a scattered maritime archipelago.

The engraving displays hallmark features of Renaissance Venetian cartography: a rectilinear graticule border, stylised mountain ranges, carefully distributed coastal toponyms, and a schematic but ambitious rendering of river systems and inland geography. Prominent commercial and cultural centres—including Goa, Calicut, and Cochin—underscore the map’s connection to contemporary trade networks and European mercantile interests in spices, textiles, and luxury goods.

Issued at a formative moment in the European visual construction of Asia, the map bridges classical geographic tradition with new intelligence derived from Portuguese exploration. Its combination of scientific aspiration, decorative restraint, and geopolitical relevance exemplifies the intellectual climate of early modern mapmaking, in which cartography functioned as both a knowledge system and an instrument of imperial ambition.

A historically resonant survival of early Italian mapping of the Indian subcontinent, of strong appeal to collectors of Renaissance cartography, early India maps, and Venetian engraving.

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