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Venice, Italy
Organisation: The Brussels Map Circle
Important notice [updated on 2020-06-30]
Quite a number of our Members have shown interest to participate in this event in October 2020, corona restrictions allowing of course. So currently our liaison officer Alex Smit is meeting up with our Italian friends to see what is feasible or not in Venice in October. They plan to come to a final proposal in the next few weeks. As soon as we have agreed on this, it will be published on this website as well as in the August issue of WhatsMap?, our digital newsletter. There’s still hope we will be able to meet in Venice!
In close collaboration with our Italian sister organization Roberto Almagià, the city of Venice has been selected as the venue for a conference to be held in October 2020. Venice is the city of many famous cartographers, such as Fra Mauro, Forlani, Bertelli, Gastaldi and Coronelli. collections. The two-day conference will focus on the interaction between cartographers of Italy and the Netherlands during the period 1550 to 1750, regarding exchanges, copying and pirating of maps, which took place extensively (and without shame).
The idea is to hold on Friday 16 October 2020 a full day of lectures in the prestigious Aula Magna of the Ateneo Veneto and on Saturday 17 October 2020 to make private visits to the famous Correr and Marcina Libraries. These both have very rich cartography collections and Marciana also the famous Fra Mauro map, which has been recently restored. These venues are all situated in the heart of Venice, on or close to the San Marco Square.
We have already received a confirmation for participation by several illustrious speakers for the conference and the preliminary programme is:
  • Vladimiro Valerio: Introduction
  • Marica Milanesi: Coronelli
  • Giorgio Mangani: Ortelius
  • Daria Perocco: Travelling in 16 and 17th centuries
  • Wouter Bracke: Dutch maps in 'Lafreri' atlasses
  • Pieter Martens: City views in mid-16th century
  • Hans Kok: Blaeu maps copied in Italy
On the evening before the conference, on Thursday 15 October 2020, an informal dinner will be organized in a typical restaurant for participants of the Brussels Map Circle only (estimated cost around EUR 35.00 pp). On Friday evening all participants to the conference will be invited to attend a very special evening on the island of Murano in the lagoon of Venice. Artistic glass blowing is their world-famous specialty and a demonstration and exhibit will be followed by cocktails and a gala dinner (estimated cost around EUR 100.00 pp). Transfers to the island by a private boat.
For the organisation a small team has been composed of Alex Smit, Emilio Moreschi, president of Almagià, and Prof. Vladimiro Valerio. Emilio lives part of the year in Venice and is very well introduced in different associations there. Many thanks to Prof. Vladimiro Valerio, who has volunteered to take care of the scientific coordination of the conference. Until recently he lectured at Venice University and is internationally recognised as a leading expert in Italian cartography. He is very well known in academic circles in Venice and lives there since many years.
Recommendations for the lodging of the participants in the vicinity of the location of the conference will be made in due time.