Mapping Space, Sense, and Movement in Florence: Historical GIS and the Early Modern City

240 Pages·2016·6.425 MB·English

by  Nicholas Terpstra, Colin Rose (eds.)

Mapping Space, Sense, and
Movement in Florence
Mapping Space, Sense, and Movement in Florence explores the potential of digital
mapping or Historical GIS as a research and teaching tool to enable researchers
and students to uncover the spatial, kinetic, and sensory dimensions of the early
modern city.
The exploration focuses on new digital research and mapping projects that
engage the rich social, cultural, and artistic life of Florence in particular. One is
a new GIS tool known as DECIMA (Digitally Encoded Census Information and
Mapping Archive), and the other is a smartphone app called H idden Florence. The
international collaborators who have helped build these and other projects address
three questions: how such projects can be created when there are typically fewer
sources than for modern cities; how they facilitate more collaborative models for
historical research into social relations, senses, and emotions; and how they help
us interrogate older historical interpretations and create new models of analysis
and communication. Four authors examine technical issues around the software
programs and manuscripts. Five other authors then describe how GIS can be used
to advance and develop existing research projects. Finally, four authors look to
the future and consider how digital mapping transforms the communication of
research results and makes it possible to envision new directions in research.
T his exciting new volume is illustrated throughout with maps, screenshots, and
diagrams to show the projects at work. It will be essential reading for students and
scholars of early modern Italy, the Renaissance, and digital humanities.
Nicholas Terpstra is Professor of History at the University of Toronto. His recent
publications include C ultures of Charity: Women, Politics, and the Reform of Poor
Relief in Renaissance Italy (2013) and Religious Refugees in the Early Modern
World: An Alternative History of the Reformation (2015).
Colin Rose is a PhD candidate in the Department of History at the University of
Toronto. He has published on petitioning the court in early modern Parma and on
vendetta and judicial practice in Bologna.
Routledge Research in Digital Humanities
Mapping space, sense, and movement in Florence
Historical GIS and the early modern city
Edited by Nicholas Terpstra and Colin Rose
Mapping Space, Sense, and
Movement in Florence
Historical GIS and the early modern city
Edited by Nicholas Terpstra
and Colin Rose
First published 2016
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2016 Nicholas Terpstra and Colin Rose for selection and editorial
matter. © the contributors for individual contributions.
The right of the editor to be identified as the author of the editorial
material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted
in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mapping space, sense, and movement in Florence : historical GIS and the
early modern city / edited by Nicholas Terpstra and Colin Rose.
pages cm. — (Routledge research in digital humanities)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-138-18489-3 (hardback : alkaline paper) —
ISBN 978-1-315-63931-4 (ebook)
1. Florence (Italy)—Historical geography—Data processing.
2. Geographic information systems. 3. Digital mapping. 4. Florence
(Italy)—History—1421–1737—Research—Data processing. 5. City and
town life—Italy—Florence—History—Research—Data processing.
6. Public spaces—Italy—Florence—History—Research—Data processing.
7. Spatial behavior—Social aspects—Italy—Florence—History—
Research—Data processing. 8. Senses and sensation—Social aspects—
Italy—Florence—History—Research—Data processing. 9. Walking—
Social aspects—Italy—Florence—History—Research—Data processing.
I. Terpstra, Nicholas. II. Rose, Colin.
DG737.4.M37 2016
911′.455110285—dc23
2015035186
ISBN: 978-1-138-18489-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-63931-4 (ebk)
Typeset in Time New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
List of figures vii
List of tables x
Acknowledgements xi
Abbreviations xiii
List of contributors xiv
Introduction 1
NICHOLAS TERPSTRA
PART 1
Creating a historical GIS project 13
1 Thinking and using DECIMA: neighbourhoods and
occupations in Renaissance Florence 15
COLIN ROSE
2 The route of governmentality: surveying and collecting
urban space in ducal Florence 33
LEAH FAIBISOFF
3 From the Decima to DECIMA and back again:
the data behind the data 53
EDUARDO FABBRO
4 Shaping the streetscape: institutions as landlords in early
modern Florence 63
DANIEL JAMISON
vi Contents
PART 2
Using digital mapping to unlock spatial and social relations 85
5 Women behind walls: tracking nuns and socio-spatial
networks in sixteenth-century Florence 87
SHARON STROCCHIA AND JULIA ROMBOUGH
6 Locating the sex trade in the early modern city: space,
sense, and regulation in sixteenth-century Florence 107
NICHOLAS TERPSTRA
7 Plague and the city: methodological considerations in
mapping disease in early modern Florence 125
JOHN HENDERSON AND COLIN ROSE
PART 3
Mapping motion, emotion, and sense: using digital
mapping to rethink categories and communication 147
8 Seeing sound: mapping the Florentine soundscape 149
NIALL ATKINSON
9 Mapping fear: plague and perception in Florence and Tuscany 169
NICHOLAS A. ECKSTEIN
10 Locating experience in the Renaissance city using mobile app
technologies: the Hidden Florence project 187
FABRIZIO NEVOLA AND DAVID ROSENTHAL
Conclusion: towards early modern spatial humanities 210
NICHOLAS TERPSTRA AND COLIN ROSE
Index 217
Figures
0.1 The Buonsignori map of Florence, 1584 (1695 copy) 5
1.1 Florentine parish churches and g onfaloni , mapped over
the city’s q uartieri at 80 per cent transparency 20
1.2 Florentine parishes as created from the D ecima entries 21
1.3 Textile weavers in Santa Maria Novella and the assessed
values of their household properties 23
1.4 Textile weavers in Santa Maria Novella and the rents they
paid, in lire 24
1.5 Butchers, bakers, and barbers in Santa Maria Novella 25
1.6 The neighbourhood of Sant’Ambrogio 27
2.1 Via del Vecchio Parione 40
2.2 Five circuits walked in the quarter of Santa Croce 44
2.3 Detail of the first Santa Croce circuit 45
2.4 Third Santa Croce circuit, from Corso de’ Tintori to
Via degli Alberti (‘F’ to ‘G’) 46
2.5 Fourth Santa Croce circuit, from Via Torricelle to
Via degli Alberti (‘L’) 47
3.1 18. Piero di Biagio, bottaio con bottegha sotto 55
3.2 705. Religione di Sa n to Jacopo, contigua a la su d ett a et a un’
[ signum crucis ] tra di d ett a Religione
706. Casa del Capitulo di Santo Lorenzo, populo di Sa n to Lor en zo,
Via d’Argento, contigua a una altra sua et a uma di Piero d’Anto ni o
Signorini 55
4.1 Institutional properties in ducal Florence, 1561 76
4.2 Innocenti properties (x) on the corner of Via Guelfa and Via Tedesca 77
4.3 Congregazione Santa Maria del Fiore properties (x) around
San Paolo 78
4.4 Camaldolesi properties (x) in Santo Spirito 79
4.5 Order of San Jacopo properties (x) near Piazza Santa Maria
Novella 79
5.1 Two pages from the Florentine Convent Census (1548, 1552):
report from Sant’Apollonia (left) and San Piero a Monticelli (right) 88
5.2 Location of four sample convents 92
5.3 Property holdings of selected nuns’ families by surname, 1562 95
viii Figures
5.4 Property holdings of Canigiani family, 1562 99
5.5 Property holdings of Altoviti family, 1562 100
6.1 Prostitution zones (1547) with religious houses 112
6.2 Concentration of registered and unregistered prostitutes (1560) 115
6.3 Assessed value of properties owned by prostitutes, 1561 117
6.4 Registered prostitutes by parish, 1561 119
6.5 Mean property value by parish, 1561 119
6.6 Prostitutes and property values, 1561 120
7.1 Buonsignori map of Florence showing the quarter of
San Giovanni/parish of San Lorenzo 130
7.2 Total plague morbidity in San Lorenzo parish, 1630–31 136
8.1 Map of the sixteen g onfaloni of Florence created after
the political reforms of 1343 150
8.2 Leon Battista Alberti, D escriptio Urbis Romae , c. 1450 152
8.3 Plotting Alberti’s coordinates onto a circular projection results
in an endlessly reproducible and highly accurate map of Rome 153
8.4 Map of the area around the Mercato Vecchio of Florence 155
8.5 Map showing the extent of the Rogation Day processions 156
8.6 The full map generated by DECIMA suggests that the larger
outer parishes were extended from their churches, most of which
lie close to the older circuit of walls 158
8.7 Author’s first attempt to visualize the daily ringing cycle of
the city’s four principal bell towers as it was described in
the city’s statutes 159
8.8 Detail of the parish map created by Atkinson and Rose 161
9.1 Florence: intersection of Borgo Santi Apostoli with Piazza Santi
Apostoli and environs 175
9.2 Notes on the household of Sandro di Vieri Altoviti 176
9.3 View of western Oltrarno, Florence, displaying selection of
households reported in August 1630 ‘Visitation’ 178
9.4 View of the area (s estiere ) of San Giovanni, Florence, displaying
selection of households reported in August 1630 ‘Visitation’ 180
9.5 View of Florence displaying data from Figures 9.3 and 9.4 180
10.1 Via dei Pilastri, detail from Stefano Buonsignori, N ova
pulcherrimae civitatis Florentiae topographia
accuratissime delineate , 1594 188
10.2 Hidden Florence app user on Via dei Pilastri 189
10.3 Piazza della Signoria, detail from Stefano Buonsignori, N ova
pulcherrimae civitatis Florentiae topographia accuratissime
delineate , 1594 191
10.4 Canto di Monteloro: intersection of Via dei Pilastri and Borgo Pinti,
detail from Stefano Buonsignori, N ova pulcherrimae civitatis
Florentiae topographia accuratissime delineate , 1594,
as viewed on screen in the Hidden Florence app 194
10.5 Canto di Monteloro: intersection of Via dei Pilastri and Borgo Pinti 195