1550 De Italia Florentia nobilissima Hethruriae civitas, deformata ad nostra tempora.

This fascinating map of Florence and its environs is from a Latin language edition of polymath Sebastian Münster’s Cosmographiae Universalis. Based on a fifteenth century engraving by Francesco Rosselli, the map is often called View of Florence with a Chain. This name is based on the chain depicted across the Arno, an ancient maritime means of safeguarding ports and harbors with narrow openings to the sea, and rivers or straits such as the Bosphorus which run through great cities. The map was popular in its day, one of the best-known early renderings of this remarkable Renaissance city. The city is depicted from an elevated vantage point on the southern side of the Arno River. According to the historical chronology of architectural edifices included in the map, it is a rather accurate rendering of the city in the mid 15th century, suggesting that the Rosselli view was quite accurate, as the dome of the Duomo (Santa Maria del Fiore), which was completed in 1436, is shown as completed in