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Robert S. Benner collection of nautical charts

 Collection
Identifier: 6248

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Scope and Contents

The Robert S. Benner collection of nautical charts consists of 22 nautical charts created in the late 17th century and mid-18th century. The majority of the nautical charts in the collection come from Francesco Maria Levanto's (1650-1718) Prima Parte dello Specchio del Mare, nel quale si Descrivono Tutti li Porti, Spiaggie, Baye, Isole, Scogli, e Seccagni del Mediterraneo, originally issued in 1663, with a later edition published in 1695. All of Francesco Maria Levanto's charts are numbered in the lower-right corner of each chart with descriptions in Italian. Levanto's charts map various Mediterranean ports, coasts, and islands. The collection also holds two nautical charts that are not part of the Francesco Maria Levanto set, which are unnumbered and captioned in English instead of Italian. The donor of the collection, Robert S. Benner, identified the two unnumbered charts as being from around the mid-18th century. One of the unnumbered charts shows the northwest coast of Ireland and the other shows "The Sea Coast of Languedoc Provence and Part of Italy; from Cape Dragon to Cape Delle Melle." Lastly, the collection includes a binder of photocopies of the charts compiled by Robert S. Benner and an SD memory card with digital image files of the charts.

Dates

  • Creation: 1663 - 1750

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Advance notice required for access.

Conditions Governing Use

All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Department of Special Collections at specol@usc.edu. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.

Rights Statement for Archival Description

Finding aid description and metadata are licensed under an Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.

Extent

3.21 Linear Feet (2 boxes)

Language of Materials

Italian

English

Abstract

The Robert S. Benner collection of nautical charts consists of 22 nautical charts created in the late 17th century and mid-18th century. The majority of the nautical charts in the collection come from Francesco Maria Levanto's (1650-1718) Prima Parte dello Specchio del Mare, nel quale si Descrivono Tutti li Porti, Spiaggie, Baye, Isole, Scogli, e Seccagni del Mediterraneo, originally issued in 1663, with a later edition published in 1695. All of Francesco Maria Levanto's charts are numbered in the lower-right corner of each chart with descriptions in Italian. Levanto's charts map various Mediterranean ports, coasts, and islands. The collection also holds two nautical charts that are not part of the Francesco Maria Levanto set, which are unnumbered and captioned in English instead of Italian. The donor of the collection, Robert S. Benner, identified the two unnumbered charts as being from around the mid-18th century. One of the unnumbered charts shows the northwest coast of Ireland and the other shows "The Sea Coast of Languedoc Provence and Part of Italy; from Cape Dragon to Cape Delle Melle." Lastly, the collection includes a binder of photocopies of the charts compiled by Robert S. Benner and an SD memory card with digital image files of the charts.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Robert S. Benner in multiple installments from 2009 to 2013.

Title
Finding aid for the Robert S. Benner collection of nautical charts
Status
Completed
Author
Bo Doub
Date
2022 February
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the USC Libraries Special Collections Repository

Contact:
Doheny Memorial Library 206
3550 Trousdale Parkway
Los Angeles California 90089-0189 United States