Carte de la Lombardie et de la Venetie

Unknown large map of northern Italy depicting Lombardy and Veneto under Austrian rule drawn by leronard Sagansan and published in July 1859, a few days after the Armistice of Villafranca. This peace treaty ended the Second Italian War of Independence and marked a crucial moment in the Unification of Italy: Austria lost most of Lombardy, while retaining Veneto. The map was drawn by Léonard Sagansan, Napoleon III’s geographer and head of cartography at the Postal Administration. Although most of Sagansan’s cartographic output is well documented, this one is extremely rare and unknown to all the bibliography consulted. The only reference found is the presence of this map within a newly published book and print sales rlist, published in 1859, which allowed us to accurately date its publication. By the time it was printed, the map was already historically obsolete-in fact, the author hastily added a legend to include the battles of Solferino, Magenta, Montebello, Palestro, etc., marked with small swords as a graphic symbol. However, it can be assumed that this attempt was not sufficient and its commercialization was abandoned, which would explain the extreme rarity of this map nowadays.