Antonio Lafreri was a French engraver who worked in Rome. Issued many maps, some of which were assembled into atlases. No two such atlases have identical contents, as they apparently were assembled to order.

Unlike other Italian map publishers, Lafreri inserted a title page with his name, and the term "Lafreri" atlas has since been used to describe such composite atlases. Lafreri was one of the first map publishers to collect maps into volumes of a uniform size and to sell them as atlases and he also conceived the idea of printing a title page for each volume. Other publishers followed his example and the bound atlas became the map publishers’ most popular product. Each collection was printed in runs of up to one hundred and distinguished by the individual style of the publisher.

The ‘Lafreri School’ maps were the product of a high-point in cartography which took place in Rome and Venice from 1540-1570. Maps at this time were made by independent publishers who each produced ranges of maps in different sizes, often based on large wall maps of cities, provinces, countries or regions.

Key figures at the time included Michele Tramezini, the Bertelli family, Givovanni Francesco Camocio and the Venetian cartographer, Giacomo Gastaldi. However the group took their name from Antonio Lafreri who was one of the most prolific map publishers.

The article by R.V.Tooley Maps in Italian Atlases of the Sixteenth Century, being a comparative list of the Italian maps issued by Lafreri, Forlani, Duchetti, Bertelli and others, found in atlases, is still a usefull reference.

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