Year: 2019
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: Shared legaciesDuring a visit to the Netherlands (between 1667 and 1668), Prince Cosimo III de' Medici purchased sixty-five hand-painted geographical maps and city views from Johannes Vingboons (1616-70), a cartographer and copyist for the Dutch India Companies, through the book dealer and fine arts connoisseur Pieter Blaeu (1636-1706) who acted as a go-between.To quote the travel journal written by Marquess Filippo Corsini, "they showed the plans of various ports, cities, fortresses and coasts of both the East and West Indies", from the coasts of the American continent to the west and east coasts of Africa, the Indian Ocean, the seas of South East Asia, the Philippines, Japan and 'New Spain', on the other side of the Pacific.Two years later, during a second and longer European journey that took him to Portugal, Spain, England, Ireland, France and back to the Netherlands again, having arrived in Lisbon in February 1669, Cosimo acted through the Portuguese mathematician and cosmographer Luís Serrão Pimentel (1613-79) to purchase copies of nautical charts featuring large-scale illustrations of the coasts of Africa, Persia and the Indian subcontinent, from the Cape of Good Hope to the Strait of Malacca.The connected global world of the mid-17th century is taking shape through the lenses of Dutch, Portuguese and Spanish cartography and landscapes.After being taken back to Florence, all documented traces of them were lost for over a century.Nevertheless, during the Lorraine era, the inventories of the Villa di Castello show that the maps were to be found in the library of Grand Duke Peter Leopold from at least 1785.They were framed and displayed on the walls in the Villa Medicea di Castello, one of the Medici family's oldest suburban residences, where they remained until around 1920.When the Savoy family left the home, the maps were taken to the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana and have since then been identified as the Carte di Castello.
Authors: Cattaneo, Angelo, Corbellini, Sabrina
Institution: Accademia della Crusca
Language: English
Subfield: Geography, Planning and Development
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7113172511