Public Lecture given by Prof. Sabrina Corbellini and Prof Philiep Bossier
In 1667, during a formative tour of the Netherlands, the future Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo III de’ Medici, acquired several maps and exotica from Pieter Blaeu. The maps depict views of port cities that were crucial nodes of the Dutch global commercial space. The Medici’s interest in science, cartography and world trade; the concept of cultural history as shared patrimonies; and finally the spatial humanities will be the main foci of the seminar.
This public lecture is organized on occasion of the opening of the exhibition “The Global Eye. Dutch, Spanish, and Portuguese Maps in the Collections of the Grand Duke Cosimo III de’ Medici” (Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, 7 November 2019 to 29 May 2020). It focuses on the historical, political, social and artistic contexts of Cosimo III’s travels through the Netherlands (1667-1668) and later Spain, Portugal, England, Ireland, the Netherlands and France (1668- 1669).