The Gallery of Maps in the Vatican Book

A Renaissance masterpiece, the Gallery of the Maps is the largest geographical representation ever made. Text in English and Italian.

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.