https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2085-4321
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ABSTRACT
Aragonese Maps’ is the name of the remaining sheets of the large-scale topographic map series attributed to the Aragonese administration of Southern Italy (1282–1516). These maps are one of the ‘mysteries’ of the history of Europe for the layered wealth of geographical information and the technical perfection of the drawing, cartography. They offer innumerable possibilities of territorial investigation and for this reason they are at the centre of the recent research of geographers, historians and scholars of the territory tout court. The visible and invisible landscapes they depict, of which the toponyms are privileged indicators, offer the opportunity for a geographical-historical investigation in a diachronic perspective: in fact, they contain numerous details linked to previous or subsequent contexts and as many questions about their origin and historical provenance. The contribution therefore proposes a geo-cartographic reading of the material and immaterial landscape elements of the Aragonese maps, starting from three objectives: the comment of some ‘enigmatic’ details of the depicted territory; the dynamic and functional reading of the landscapes obtained from an examination of the most explanatory toponyms; a methodological proposal for the realization of a Geotoponomastic Atlas based on the semantic web.
ABSTRAITE
Les Cartes Aragonaises sont le nom des feuilles restantes de la série des cartes topographiques grande échelle attribuées à l'administration Aragonaise du sud de l'Italie (1282-1561). Ces cartes sont l'un des mystères de l'histoire de la cartographie européenne en raison de la richesse des couches d'information et de la perfection technique du dessin. Ces cartes offrent un nombre infini de recherche territoriale et sont, pour cette raison, au centre de recherches récentes de géographes, historiens et de ceux qui étudient ce territoire. Les paysages visibles et invisibles qu'elles cartographient, dont les toponymes sont les indicateurs privilégiés, offrent la possibilité de recherches géo-historiques dans une perspective diachronique : En fait, elles contiennent de nombreux détails liés aux contextes antérieur et postérieur et soulèvent de nombreuses questions sur leur origine et leur provenance historique. Ainsi notre contribution propose une lecture géo-cartographique des éléments paysagers matériels et immatériels des cartes Aragonaises, en commençant par trois objectifs : un commentaire sur certains détails énigmatiques du territoire cartographié, une lecture dynamique et fonctionnelle des paysages obtenue à partir de l'examen des toponymes les plus explicatifs et une proposition méthodologique pour la réalisation d'un atlas géotoponymique basé sur le web sémantique.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 For an index map of the Aragonese Cartography of the Naples’s Kingdom, see La Greca, Valerio (Citation2008, pp. 18–20, 24, 29).
2 Tacito, Ann., IV, 67; Svetonio, Tib., 65.
3 Stazio, Silvae, II, 2.
4 Cassiodoro, Var., XI, 10; Simmaco, Ep., VI, 18; Galeno, De methodo medendi, V, 12; Procopio, Goth., IV, 35, 7–9; 14–17.
5 Mela, De chorographia, II, 4, 69.
6 Lucilio, III, 125; Livio, XL, 18, 8; Livio, XLII, 20, 3; Ovidio, Metam., XV, 709; Mela, De chorographia, II, 4, 69; Plinio il Vecchio, Natur. hist., III, 5, 62; Stazio, Silvae, II, 2, 1–2; Liber Coloniarum, I, p. 237, 1 L; Guido da Pisa, Geographica, 74.
7 Examples are the works of Perugino, Vittore Carpaccio, Raphael. It cannot be excluded that the remains of the temple were still visible in the Aragonese period, given that at the beginning of the eighteenth century, Filippo Anastasio, known as the ‘Patriarch Antiocheno’, could still see the columns of the Athenaion and a relief depicting the seven wise men of Greece (Phil. Anastasius, Lucubrationes in Surrentinorum ecclesiasticas civilesque antiquitates [T. I-II, Romae, 1731–1732], T. II, p. 252).
8 Strabo, V, 4, 8 (C 247).
9 The Circe temple was identified in the 1600s with some large ruins in the locality of ‘La Rota’ near Sorrento (Castellano, Citation2016, p. 335).
10 Federico (Citation2016, pp. 289–292).
11 Percopo (Citation1997).
12 See Docci, Maestri (Citation1989). The drawings are in the Uffizi Cabinet in Florence. Regarding the Renaissance mentality on the reuse of ancient things see Bracco (Citation1979, pp. 54, 58, 66, 86).
13 Cfr. Bracco (Citation1979, p. 63); Stille (Citation2003).
14 According to Silvestri (Citation1998), the place name Capri is to be traced back to the Italic rather than the Greek language. If this etymology were accepted, the name of the place could be explained by the presence of goats, animals that are well adapted to the impervious landscape of Capri and contribute to the local economy to the extent that they have become clear icons.
15 Carena derives from Lat. carina ‘carena, keel, naviglio, valva of the nutshell’.
16 Interesting is Federico’s (Citation2016) reflection on the place name Syrene, considered an ‘approximate classical echo’, since it is traditionally linked to the Sorrento peninsula and not to the island of Capri.
17 Based on a recent reflection promoted by the Association of Italian Geographers (Citation2018), Digital and Public Geography can be defined a scientific orientation that considers geography an open discipline, directing its studies towards social utility, to welcome, share and offer knowledge, with more effective scientific communication tools, also using the web, for interacting with the territory and civil society.
18 According to the idea of its founder, Tim Berners-Lee, the Semantic Web is a ‘virtual’ environment (understood in its Latin meaning of ‘potential’) in which information and data, described and interrelated according to ‘ontological-semantic systems’ (which describe real objects through formal logic), can become available through ‘intelligent’ search engines, for favouring cooperation between scholars from all over the world (Berners-Lee et al., Citation2001).
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Notes on contributors
Pierluigi De Felice
Pierluigi De Felice, Researcher of Geography at the Department of Humanities of the University of Salerno.
Fernando La Greca
Fernando La Greca, Researcher of Roman History at the Department of Humanities of the University of Salerno.
Silvia Siniscalchi
Silvia Siniscalchi, Associate Professor of Geography at the Department of Humanities of the University of Salerno.