Palazzo Vecchio’s Famed Map Room and Terrestrial Globe Restored
Thanks to Funding from Friends of Florence
Following a complex three-year process involving teams of experts, Museo di Palazzo Vecchio’s Wardrobe, commonly known as the Map Room—the most visited gallery in the museum—has been fully restored thanks to funding provided by Friends of Florence.
The project included restoration of both the large terrestrial globe and 53 maps of the world as it was known in the second half of the 16th century commissioned by Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici. The process also involved the structural consolidation of the floor, the installation of a domotic lighting system, the complete overhaul and maintenance of the 13 monumental walnut cabinets with carved decorative motifs by Dionigi di Matteo Nigetti; and the replacement of protective acrylic panes with modern antiglare panels.
The operation was devised and managed by Palazzo Vecchio’s Servizio Belle Arti e Fabbrica under the Direzione Servizi Tecnici in conjunction with the Direzione Cultura’s Servizio Musei. Most of the process was conducted on site so visitors could watch the restorers at work.
In tandem with the restoration, the Museo Galileo, thanks to an accord stipulated with the Comune di Firenze, developed a website exploration of the room, which has been reconstructed digitally along with the globe and works of art it houses. An illustrated publication documenting the restoration process will be published by Mandragora in 2025. Both the website and publication are also supported by Friends of Florence. enabling users to conduct an interactive 3D
Background
Egnazio Danti, a Dominican monk and the cosmographer of the Grand Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici, created maps that decorated the walls of the Map Room of Palazzo Vecchio. Danti also worked as an instrument maker and his writings on the construction and use of the astrolabe and on astronomy were widely read. He was a lecturer of mathematics at the Studio Fiorentino, and created the gnomon, the astronomical quadrant, and the armillary sphere on the façade of the Church of the Santa Maria Novella.
Vasari designed the Geographic room with numerous fine cabinets that are decorated with extraordinary detailed maps of the world. Of the 53 maps eventually completed, 30 were painted by Danti (1564-1575) and 23 by Olivetan monk Stefano Bonsignori (1575-1586).Twenty-seven were taken from Ptolemy’s Geographia (2nd century AD), though they were updated to reflect contemporary writing, while the others, including those of America, were taken from a variety of more recent sources.
