The Wines of Italy
- Title:
- The Wines of Italy
- Alternate Title:
- The Wines of Italy
- Collection:
- Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- Zimelli, Umberto
- Other Creators:
- Ente Nazionale Industrie Turistiche (ENIT) [Italian State Tourist Agency], publisher
- Date:
- 1933
- Posted Date:
- 2024-04-25
- ID Number:
- 2459.01
- File Name:
- PJM_2459_01.jpg
- Style/Period:
- 1920 - 1939
- Subject:
- Advertising & Promotion
Pictorial - Measurement:
- 64 x 46 (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- This striking art deco map by the artist Umberto Zimelli was published by the Italian National Tourist Agency (ENIT) to promote the variety and pleasure of Italian wines. It is a companion to a similar Zimelli poster, "Italie Gastronomique. Carte des Principales Spécialités Gastronomiques des Régions Italiennes," ID #2389, published by ENIT two years earlier so "foreigners could identify the best products available in the cheese or dessert industry, the best wines and preserved foods, and contemplate steaming bowls of pasta placed between bottles of wine and molds of cheese.” Capatti 2003, 30. The text on this map and the detailed explanation verso (ID #2459.02) are in English, in an effort to attract English-speaking tourists; ENIT also published versions in German and French. The entire sheet folds down to a brochure, 9-1/2 x 4-1/4, easily fit into a pocket or bag.
As in the earlier map, seventeen major regions of Italy are identified by legend on the map, from Piedmont, Lombardy, the Veneto and Tuscany in the north to Sardinia in the Mediterranean and Calabria and Sicily in the south. The wines of each region are highlighted on the map, red wines in red, white wines in yellow, and sweet dessert wines in gray. Potentially empty areas of the map are filled with decorative pictorial elements, including the title cartouche, a wind rose, and a small sailboat carrying barrels of wine. The verso, written by the winemaking expert and Deputy Minister of Agriculture Arturo Marescalchi, describes the wines of each region in great detail.
Zimelli was a Milanese illustrator and designer who worked in a variety of the decorative arts. ENIT also published a similar Zimelli map of “Popular Italian Costumes.”
These maps are strikingly similar in concept to a Hungarian art deco promotional map of food and drink published a few years later to attract German tourists. See ID #2336, Ungarn Ein Land Für Feinschmecker [Hungary a Land for Gourmets] (1935).
The collection includes a number of promotional maps related to the food and wine of France and other countries, beginning as early as 1809. Search > "Gastronomique."
Cornell University Library is pleased to present this digital collection of Persuasive Maps, the originals of which have been collected and described by the private collector PJ Mode. The descriptive information in the “Collector’s Notes” has been supplied by Mr. Mode and does not necessarily reflect the views of Cornell University. - Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.