Italy Land of Saints and Sanctuaries; Pax et Bonum
Milan: Italgeo, 1949. Color lithograph (31 by 22 1/4 inches) on thick sheet of paper with text printed on verso. Creased along original folds, faint marginal soiling and wrinkling, slight loss along center folds in upper and lower margins (not affecting image). A near-fine copy. Item #1785
"PAX ET BONUM"
Holy Year map of Italy—a large folding color lithograph, picturing the Saints and Shrines of Italy—published for Anno Santo 1950. *Will ship folded so map can be custom matted and framed*
Post-war Europe was ravaged but "the end of the war saw the prestige of the papacy at an all-time high." Declared by the bull ("Jubilaeum maximum") of Pope Pius XII, "the Holy Year of 1950 brought millions of more humble pilgrims to the tomb of Peter" (Thomas Bokenkotter). This marvelous pictorial map of Italy was illustrated by the Russian artist Vsevolod Nicoline and printed in Milan in 1949 by Italgeo, the legacy firm of Giovanni de Agostini. Distributed in the United States by the Catholic War Veterans, a service organization established in 1935 to support baptized Catholics in the U.S. Armed Forces.
Numerous saints are named and dated, with halos highlighted in gilt ink. Dozens of holy sites throughout the deeply religious country are faithfully recreated with frontal profiles, though none match the size and grandeur of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The map has a certain Franciscan flavor. Along with Saint Catherine of Siena, it is Saint Francis of Assisi adorning the highly decorative cartouche, flanked with olive branches and topped with the Franciscan phrase, "Pax et Bonum" (Peace and Goodness). Pope Leo XIV has proclaimed 2026 as a Jubilee Year to commemorate the 800th anniversary of the passing of St. Francis of Assisi. With an alphabetical key to the "Saints and Sanctuaries Mentioned in This Map" printed on the verso. Approbations. Thomas Bokenkotter. A Concise History of the Catholic Church.
Price: $500.00