Giovanni Antonio Magini, also known by the Latin name Maginus (Padua, June 13, 1555 - Bologna, February 11, 1617), was an Italian astronomer, cartographer, mathematician and astrologer.
As a cartographer, he created the Geographic Atlas of Italy, which his son had printed after his death in 1620 (title page on the side). The atlas was designed to include maps of each Italian region with the exact nomenclature and historical notes. Composed of a short descriptive text of only 24 maps, the work is accompanied by 61 geographical maps of the peninsula, and constitutes the first example of an Italian atlas. Despite being published posthumously, the work is entirely by the hand of Magini, who began the making of the cards around 1594, first giving birth to the map of the Bologna area in 1595.
He was in correspondence with Tycho Brahe, Clavius, Abraham Ortelius and Johannes Kepler. His letters were published in 1886 by Antonio Favaro.
In his honor the name of Maginus was given to a lunar crater.
