New Directions for DECIMA

Starting in 2019, we set out to expand our scope beyond the walls of Florence and create census-integrated maps for other early modern cities. We didn’t have to look far for an excellent candidate: just down the Arno, taking a left along the barge canals, Livorno was waiting for us.

The essential port of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, Livorno was expanded in the late sixteenth century to attract trade and traders from around the Mediterranean and northern Europe. To accomplish this, the Medici offered to extend special privileges, and turn a blind eye, to religious communities otherwise