ESSO ESSO Esso has been active in the Italian retail petrol (gasoline) market since before the 1920s. However, it does not appear to have issued its own road maps before the 1950s, preferring instead to advertise on the maps issued by the RACI (Royal Italian Automobile Club), where the script Esso logo can often be found adjacent to that of Shell.
In the 1950s, all European Esso companies were expected to produce maps conforming to a broad style, and so Italian maps began to appear.
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The two maps shown right are both dated 1957, although the top one is the final (ninth) edition of the old design and is dated March. Its cover shows Paraggi (S. Margherita Ligure) and it used a more complex cartographic style with contour shading. |
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Towards the end of the 1950s Esso started issuing a few Italian city maps for special events.
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The map of Bari shown left is for the 1959 "Fiera del Levante", the annual fair and exhibition held each September. 200 km North up the Adriatic Coast lies Ancona, and the 1960 Esso map (right) was produced for its International Fishing Festival, held annually on 11-16 May. |
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1960 - the Rome Olympic year |
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It is not surprising that Esso also chose to issue special maps for the Rome Olympics in 1960. Four new maps were produced: a version of the Western Europe map that had Northern Italy on the reverse and the first three illustrated above. Both the Roma (Rome) and Sardegna (Sardinia) maps were described as having been newly drawn for the year: it seems that the Italian authorities were trying to encourage tourism in the rest of Italy as well as in Rome. The Italian national map was described as being a "special Edition for the XVII Olympic Games" and included a large inset map of the Rome area at 1:150,000, marking the principal stadiums and camping sites. It also included the inset map of the Bay of Naples, showing how the Ercolano had been swept away by the 5.5 metre class yacht races.
A map issued by ENIT, the Italian tourist board also carried an Esso advertising panel, and this is shown on a separate adverts page.
By December 1960 Esso had reverted to a more typical scenic cover, showing the Ponte S. Angeo in Rome. The area occupied by the inset map of Rome now featured an enlarged scale map of the Italian Lakes.
Later Italian Maps
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By 1967, Sardinia and Rome were incorporated into a single map with Central Italy, using the standard Esso style. Each section was to 1:500,000 scale. As Italian petrol retailing became increasingly unprofitable, several companies started co-producing maps with firms outside the sector. This June 1971 map was prepared jointly with Avis rentacar. However as late as 1980, Esso continued to produce the three sectional maps, as can be seen in this North example. The age of the base map is revealed in a 1968 copyright date. |
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The latest Esso maps known are, however, not proper road maps. They were produced as a series of about a dozen maps expressly to be given away in summer 1983 by Esso dealers on the autostrade (motorways). They were prepared in Milano by Geo Executive/Arti Grafiche Ricordi and totally lack any roads, although there is a tiny Esso logo in the bottom right hand corner of the margin and they were distributed in envelopes carrying a large Esso sign. Stylistically they perhaps owe as much to the pre-war Pratts pictorial plans of Britain as to the General Drafting Company ones used in the 1950s. |
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The next page shows a few more Esso cruising guides.
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| Text and layout © Ian Byrne, 1999-2003 | |||
