When in Rome, do as Pope Gregory XIII did, and steep yourself in the early history of Italy through a series of 40 intricate, charming maps designed by Egnazio Danti in 1580 for the Vatican Palace. According to Lucio Gambi, the author of this definitive text, Danti "was assisted by a throng of painters and stuccoworkers" in completing the work. The maps, which line a mammoth 20-by-400-foot hallway, are more like bird's-eye views, with sailing ships, soldiers' tents, medieval battlements, and cypress trees dotting the hillsides. An anonymous poet, celebrating the gallery's opening, wrote, "Each region is placed under its ruling planet and occupies an entire panel which shows the cities, castles, and villages with their streets and houses huddled together. Neither are the rivers forgotten, nor the springs, steep valleys and gentle hills, the green shade of the woods, the windswept shores, and the green expanses of sea that truly seem to move...." Danti, a Dominican monk, cosmographer, and mathematician, moved from Bologna to Rome to prepare the cartoons for the 40 maps, which show not only Italian cities and provinces, but also historic battles and sieges. This book documents the gallery as a whole but also includes scores of details. With their white-capped waves, meandering streams, sailing ships, and limpid sunrises, the plates inspire hours of perusal. While the essay is too dense for children, the pictures would be fascinating to anyone with a taste for fortresses and ships at sea, whatever his or her age. --Peggy Moorman
From Library Journal
When the Renaissance Pope Gregory XIII (1572-85) decided to commemorate a spacious Vatican gallery, he commissioned the Dominican friar and cosmographer Egnizio Danti. In conscious imitation of the ancient Roman custom of decorating the walls of state buildings with geographical images, Danti designed 40 richly embellished maps of Italian port cities in two parallel lines along the walls. These frescoes constitute the largest cycle of geo-graphical images in Europe. Gambi's (geography, Univ. of Milan) valuable introductory essay treats many aspects of the maps showing, for example, that they are unequal in geographical accuracy. Branch's (emeritus, planning, Univ. of Southern California) work contains 40 detailed maps of European cities, plus maps of Constantinople, Calcutta, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston as they appeared 150 years ago when they were published in London by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. In addition to an introductory essay on the evolution of urban design, each map is accompanied by an informative text on the history and design of that city, stressing the effect of population growth on planning. The maps are based on fine steel engravings, each hand colored. Maps in both volumes have been clearly reproduced, though a magnifying glass is necessary to read the tiny lettering. Students of cartography, the history of art, and social history will find these volumes very useful.?Bennett D. Hill, Georgetown Univ., Washington D.C.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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