Maps of Florence

Maps for the Masses

DECIMA is a collaborative research tool that allows anybody to develop their questions about Renaissance Florence and find new ways of answering them through maps and dynamic data analysis. This page showcases a series of projects that have been DECIMAted by project team members, colleagues, and collaborators.

Want to join the fun? See our publicly-available datasets, and make your own thematic maps, in our WebGIS App.

Stone Laws

See where - and why - the rules of the road were carved in stone in Renaissance Florence.

Mapping Public Violence

Italian cities suffered high levels of public violence. Take a first look at this map of public homicides in Bologna, 1600-1700.

 

The Office of Decency

Two new datasets that map sentences promulgated by the Ufficio dell Onestà from 1560-1606.

 

Florence Under Siege

Watch the plague spread through San Lorenzo Parish from October 1630 to October 1631.

Explore the New Storymap!

The Beauties of Florence

             StoryMap

Explore an interactive StoryMap of five guided tours of Florence from Francesco Bocchi's 1596 Bellezze di Firenze

Sex and the Sacred

Where were Florence's meretrici, courtesans, allowed to live? Where did they actually live? This map plots the known residences of sex workers against the permitted streets for the practice of their trade.

On the eve of the Ghetto

In 1568 the Medici duke ordered a census of the city's Jews, before creating the city's ghetto in 1570. This map shows their residences around the city.

City of God

Where did Florentines go to church? Pretty much on any street in the city.

Textile Trades

The Florentine economy depended heavily on textile work. Where did its labourers live?

Bakers, Butchers, Barbers

Where did Florentines buy their bread? Or get a haircut? See the regular dispersal of basic services in the city in this static map.

The Essential Tavern

Where there's a will, there is wine - and it was a key part of Florence's urban sociality. This StoryMap by DECIMA student researchers takes us into the world of Florentine drinking.

Women and the Tavern in Late Sixteenth-Century Florence

Taverns were not just for men, and they could be dangerous places for women. Explore how women navigated these complex social spaces in this student-researcher StoryMap.

The Beauties of Florence

Take one of the first guided tours through Florence, from Francesco Bocchi's 1596 Bellezze di Firenze

Enslaved Florence

Wealthy Florentines depended on the labour of enslaved peoples from around the Mediterranean and beyond. This StoryMap traces the presence of enslaved individuals in fifteenth-century Florence.

Neighbourhood Kingdoms

Florence had a Duke - but it also had Kings of the Street. See streetcorner politics in action.

Women on the Edge

Running a household was a tricky business for single women. This StoryMap explores the social and economic challenges faced by female heads of household.

Have something to share?

If you have feedback or questions about the above, please drop us a line.

This project is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

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