World History and Culture: Exhibition "Plans of Venice in the Collections of the Cartography Department. Marking the 1600th Anniversary of the City" presented in the National Library of Russia

The Cartography Department of the National Library of Russia (Saint-Petersburg) launched an exhibition "Plans of Venice in the Collections of the Cartography Department. Marking the 1600th Anniversary of the City". Cartographic materials of the XVI– XXI centuries reveal the long history of the Adriatic Queen. The exposition features ancient plans with pompous names, lavish decoration and numerous drawings, as well as modern tourist maps and guidebooks. Most of the presented items are perspective plans that depict the territory from a bird's eye view. This cartographic technique is still popular because of its clarity and opportunity to create a vivid and complete artistic image of the urban space. We see a city in a lagoon on islands crossed by canals and connected by bridges, its quarters, palaces and high bell towers over the residential area.

Maps of the XVI-XVII centuries captured a well-developed city that has not changed since that time. Once, it used to be a world centre of crafts, a crossroads of many trade routes. But this city had already experienced the apogee of its power and glory. Its exuberant architecture expresses its political and economic status and the Venetians' love for luxury. Its nature encouraged the city creators to seek the best materials and construction technology. The exhibition includes a colourful plan (the earliest in the Department of Cartography of the National Library of Russia) and Venician views from the Civitates Orbis Terrarum (Cities of the Earth). It is the second printed atlas and the first collection of city maps in the history of world cartography. Its creators and authors were theologian Georg Braun, engraver and publisher Frans Hogenberg, painter and drawer Joris Hoefnagel and others. The atlas featured more than five hundred plans, published in Cologne between 1572 and 1617. This publication contributed much to the history of cities' mapping.

On the plans of the XVIII century, we see Venice, which lost its power over the Adriatic but saved the fabulous wealth. It became the capital of entertainment and arts, famous for theatres, masquerades and regattas. The city looks so festive and pompous on the plan of George Matthäus Seutter, a famous German engraver and cartographer, founder of the publishing house. At the bottom, there are two views of St. Mark's Cathedral and the Doge's Palace, depicting scenes of city life. The exhibition presents a copy of the first topographic plan of the city by L. Ugi since it is difficult to display the original because of its size (1.6x2.2 metres). Its first publication was performed by the famous publisher and founder of the Venician guild of engravers D. Baroni in 1729. Then it was reprinted several times and served as a prototype for many other plans of Venice. The sides of the map include 16 colourful views of the prominent buildings and bridges of Venice.

The exposition also comprises maps of the late XIX century. It was the time of the new rise of Venice - the construction of a new port and tourism development. It is the age of the ultimate transformation of Venice into an open-air museum and the end of new construction. The exhibition includes the first guides to Venice from the series Joan's Guides (published in Paris at the end of the XIX century by the Hachette publishing house) and Grieben's Guide Books (published in Berlin in 1912 by Goldschmith's publishing house).

The exhibition will run until May 30.