CHAPTER VII 



TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS OF THE 

 FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CENTURIES 



As we have seen, new maps of various European countries 

 began to appear in editions of Ptolemy before the end of the 

 fifteenth century. These are in general based on outlines from 

 the marine charts, with contemporary names in place of 

 Ptolemy's, and some additional features. The latter were 

 probably drawn from regional maps, which were being made in 

 northern Italy as early as the fourteenth century. 



Rivers are perhaps the easiest natural features to map fairly 

 accurately without elaborate instruments. They were also a 

 principal means of transport, and would be well known to 

 generations of watermen. At a later date, maps would be 

 useful when the need for controlling or improving their 

 courses arose. From the fifteenth century quite elaborate maps 

 of territories in northern Italy have survived. The territories 

 of the city states, often compactly grouped around the capitals 

 in well-watered plains, formed reasonably sized units for the 

 delineators. One of the earliest of these extant 'surveys' is an 

 exceptionally large one (3.05 m. x2.25 m.) of Verona and its 

 territories, ascribed to c. 1440. This is carefully drawn and 

 coloured, with mountains in brown, rivers a green-blue, 

 vegetation light green, roads yellow, and names in red. It seems 

 obvious that the style of execution is the culmination of a long 

 tradition, and not something evolved in a few years. As to the 

 methods employed in drawing the map. Professor Almagia 

 suggests very reasonably that it was built up on distances and 

 directions radiating from Verona; along the main roads and 

 near the middle of the map, the accuracy is fair, and distortions 

 are greater near the margins, particularly in areas not traversed 

 by roads. Another element in this map has been supplied by 

 the topographical artist; along the lakes, for example, profile 

 views of the mountain ranges have been drawn, and the 



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