Antonio Manzelli. An early Vien (c. 1623) in The British Librarv Jesús R. Escobar Fairfield University, Fairfield (Connecticut, U.S.A) uio del Der)artamento de Historia y Teoría del Arte (U.A.M.). Vol. XVII. 2005

ABSTRAT This nrticle e-rarninesa re-di.rcoi.eredprinted ivielc. of tlze Plaza Mayor of Madridfrom around 1623 by the Iralian artist, Antonio Manzelli. The pnnt survives in the British Lihraty in London, having been part o f rhe roval collection of George 111. The article analyes rl~epnnt for t l ~ eempirical evidence ir afford.~aborrr tlre appearance of tlze Plaza Mayor ar the time of its cornpletion. arld also for the rich re.rtiia1 a~idenceir offers. 111the text, 1Vacln'd is (:eIebrated as the achievement o f a well-organlized mirni,cipal goipernmentwho senje the c i p S rteeds a,nd a bena'O. lenr r~ilerwlro provides Madrid vvith a gifr worthy of t gods' admiration. T11ePlaza M a ~ o ris, thzrs, the emboi rnenr of good government.

Este arl.íczllo e.wn lino una e!itampa recién descut una ifiista de In Plaza Ma'yor de M,aclrid de 1lacia Jr623, reali=da por (71 artista iitaliano An tor~io Man~zelli. r -L-a ---- iJc( en la Britisri1. Lirlrurv I Lu ouru .>rLunJer de Londre: 1>iendofon nando antt?Sparte de In colecci~ i n del rey. 1Y. El artí~ .irlo analira la estam,pn, considerando fa9 c7on

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In 1622, the Italian-bom engraver and painter Anton Manzelli signed a contract to make a map of 1Madrid an< view of the recently completed Plaza Mayor, for which possessed elaborate drawings. Three hundrec1prints we commissioned on 1 1 September of that year. I.-A~ I I Una..--;~iaii~clli was paid for his work eight months later, suggesting that the images had been engraved in Madrid'. Although copies of Manzelli's prints were sold in the patio of the Roya1 Alcázar in Madrid -presumably by town officialsas well as from Manzelli's own house in the parish of San Martín, no known copies of these images have surfaced until now. There has been considerable debate about the

dentificatic3n of Maní!elli's Madrid map, as will be discused below. Notice of Ithe Plaza ?vlayor vielv, however;has e e n rather silent. It ivrould have been the rst printed view ~fthe moniimental city square. and one ma4de on the eve of . . . ,...-A ,O -,......l-* :,.- TI...- +h., -..-L.. -1 -4- r h ~ .. i .-... ... " L f i l

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a:Ibum in th e Map Roc3m of the 1British Library in Loindon iis both a su rprise and a notable f ind'. -. ~. . ,t The prii,, bu..,,n a' proud title alonz its upper h tihat reads: "Verdaderc3 retrato dcLI suntuosc F'laca de la muy noblle villa de !Madrid" (1 ing a consi derable 45l 5 x 9 0 0 m m. Manzel . ,. . . . . . nlticant tor the empincai evidence it orrers with rega P.l.T.P.2

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rhe appearance of the great city square. Beyond this, however, the view includes a great deal of text which illuminates the architectural features of the Plaza Mayor, as well 1s aspects iof its construction hiistory, and its meaning for he residents of Madnd. roya1 and comrrioner alike. Altiough a p: inegyric vierse on th~ e print dat es the image to 619. Marizelli's deldication it self make s clear that the riew was n~ a d in e the early yeais o f the re ign of Felipe IV, vho succec:ded his father as kin gin 1671. 7%- Rr;*:~h1 :t...r.. ...A,+ As. F,,, uilLIJli t)lII1l U C ; I I V G 3 l l V l l l the Topographintt[ador]es s, nllciP-n J las mapas de M[adrild y al lienqo q se les dio a cada uno marcoi de miaden dondc>s como se pucieron a los que se dio 3I los señores del Cons[ej]o Y que para ellos se diesen a cada uno cinqu[en]ta r[eale]s para q los hiqiecen. Y ect e acuerdo alinq se hiqo nio parece se isscrivo en el libro y asi agora se buelve a acordar de nuebo y manda que el acuerdo que a de sev;ir de libran(.a con el qua 1 se le pagen y recivan eri qu[enlta al dho may[ordolmo de propios:' AHPM. Prot . 2683. fol. 7 7 v . cited b)r Marcuc B. 13urke and Pe,ter Cherry. Collecrionsqf Pnintin~sin Madrid. 1601-1755 (Los Angeles. Provenance lndes of the Getty Infomation Instiiute. 1997). vol. 1. 218-19. Brimela y Cárdenas died around 25 September 1630. the date in which the Ayuntamiento note5 his passing: see Archivo de Villa de Madrid. Libros de Actas. GÓNZALEZ DÁVRA.Teatm de /OS Grnndeícrs. 37-138. The bulk of these pages is dedicated to an account of Felipe 111's reign. R.RED.*. "Iconografía de una capital b m a : Madrid entre el simbolismo y la ciencia. Espacio. 7iempo Forma. 11. 1998. 103-34, and idem, "lmmagini di Madrid. fra scienza e arte." in L'Eitrnna moderna. C~rrtoerafiaurhlrna e vedutismo. eds. Cesare de'Seta and Daniela Stroffolino (Naples, Electa. 200 1 ), 129-43. ' 5 It seemc worthwhile at this stage of tt ) put one last point of loc;i1 folklore to rest in our consideration of the Manzelli images. There has not surfaced any evidence of a link hetween the earliest map o1r Madnd and the work of the Florentine cartographer. Antonio Tempesta. Such a link was first suggested in 1917 by Eulogio Varela Hewías. "Notic,,;- ..,.h,,. plano de Madrid,.' Revisra de Ici Biblioteca. Archivo y Mirseo 16 (1947): 27 1-2, uho (:ited two len~ e n from the Geman phil'osopher G.Ri Leihniz to Henri Justel, an advisor and secretary to Louis XN. Dated to 1678, these brief lenere make refererice to a plan of Madrid iri which "tou tec les maicons...sont representées en penpective." When Leibniz suggests "il a esté gravé par Tempecte." thi' ; should he t;lken as a slif> for what m' ust have been an intended reference to Pedro Teixeira's ,pat map of 1656. 8

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