Museo Galileo
italiano
Virtual Museum
Multimedia
History of cartography
Video   Text

 

Mapmaking, a very ancient craft, seeks to represent spaces in a proportional and rational manner. The representation parameters have evolved continuously in response to changing requirements. As a result, we have urban maps, road maps, regional maps, and geographic maps.

The expansion of maritime traffic—first in the Mediterranean basin, then across the oceans—stimulated the production of increasingly elaborate sea charts. It is impossible to apply to the history of cartography a paradigm that measures progress solely in terms of precision in measurement standards. For maps provide answers to questions that do not relate exclusively to practical concerns. The mystical cartography of the medieval Mappaemundi resonates with the fears and expectations of western societies of their age. But modern tourist maps and ancient road maps serve the same purposes, and their syntax has remained essentially unchanged to this day.

With the formation of modern States, cartography became an instrument of territorial control and a key component of war strategy. In the mid-sixteenth century, mapmakers began using rigorous geometric methods that culminated in the Age of Enlightenment. Meanwhile, new computation techniques were developed and conventional signs came into universal use.

Objects
Atlante nautico, Anonymous (facsimile)

Atlante nautico, Anonymous (facsimile)

Firenze, Museo Galileo, MED GF028
Author unknown, original after 1670 / facsimile 2010

Atlante nautico, Giovanni Oliva (facsimile)

Atlante nautico, Giovanni Oliva (facsimile)

Firenze, Museo Galileo, MED GF032
Giovanni Oliva, original 1616 / facsimile 2010

Planisphere (facsimile)

Planisphere (facsimile)

Inv. 946
Lopo Homem, Lisbon, 1554

Sea charts

Sea charts

Dep. ABA, Firenze
Bartolomeu Velho, 1561

Terrestrial globe

Terrestrial globe

Dep. SBAS, Firenze
Maison Delamarche, Paris, 1844

Terrestrial globe

Terrestrial globe

Dep. SBAS, Firenze
Vincenzo Coronelli, 1696

Terrestrial globe

Terrestrial globe

Inv. 2363
Vincenzo Coronelli, Venice, 1688 / after 1691

Terrestrial globe

Terrestrial globe

Inv. 2365
Vincenzo Coronelli, Venice, 1688 / after 1691

Terrestrial globe

Terrestrial globe

Inv. 2698
Willem Jansz Blaeu, published by Joan Blaeu ca. 1645-1648

Terrestrial globe

Terrestrial globe

Inv. 2699
Guillaume Delisle, Paris, 1700 / after 1708

Terrestrial globe

Terrestrial globe

Inv. 2701
Matthäus Greuter, Rome, 1632

Terrestrial globe

Terrestrial globe

Inv. 3369
Félix Delamarche & Charles Dien, Paris, 1821

Terrestrial globe

Terrestrial globe

Inv. 3621
Maison Delamarche, Paris, 1858

Terrestrial globe

Terrestrial globe

Inv. 353
Willem Jansz Blaeu, published by Joan Blaeu ca. 1645-1648

Terrestrial globe

Terrestrial globe

Inv. 354
Willem Jansz Blaeu, published by Joan Blaeu ca. 1645-1648

Terrestrial globe

Terrestrial globe

Loan INAF-Arcetri
Willem Jansz Blaeu, 1622 / published ca. 1630

Terrestrial globe

Terrestrial globe

Dep. SBAS, Firenze
Charles-François Delamarche, Paris, 1785

Terrestrial globe

Terrestrial globe

Dep. SBAS, Firenze
Klinger Kunsthandlung, Nuremberg, ca. 1900

Terrestrial globe

Terrestrial globe

Dep. SBAS, Firenze
Maison Delamarche, Paris, 1850

World map (facsimile)

World map (facsimile)

Dep. BNC, Firenze
Fra' Mauro, original Murano / facsimile Florence, original 1457-1459 / facsimile 1942