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Reminiscenze di una fondazione urbana abortita. Sasso di Simone (Sestino, AR) nella cartografia granducale del XVIII secolo
Reminiscences of a failed urban foundation. Sasso di Simone (Sestino Municipality, Arezzo Province) in 18th century cartography of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany
Piastra, Stefano
2025
Abstract
In the broader context of Cosimo I’s policy of strength¬ening the borders of the Medici state/Grand Duchy of Tuscany by founding new urban settlements, on July 14th 1566 the foundation stone was laid for a new city on the top of Sasso di Simone (Municipality of Sestino, Province of Arezzo), a limestone massif located between the Valtiberina and Montefeltro (Northern-Central Apennines, Italy). The settlement, whose construction was undertaken by Leonardo di Carlo da Nipozzano with the contribution of Battista di Francesco Zani, was substantially completed by the mid-1570s and was initially limited to a few dozen houses, a church, a tower and some infrastructures (an ac¬cess road carved into the bedrock, a cistern used to col¬lect rainwater). However, the impervious location at a high altitude (about 1200 m a.s.l.) in a restricted area, the high maintenance costs, and the climate change related to the inset of the Little Ice Age (1550-1850 ca.) implied a failure of this foundation, which around 1590 had about a hundred inhabitants, later reduced to 46 in 1627. In 1673 the reuse of the building materials of the town began; by early 18th century the city of Sasso di Simone was already completely abandoned. Nevertheless, for almost the entire 18th cen¬tury, this urban foundation continued to be mapped in the cartography of the Lorraine period as existing and inhabit¬ed. The reasons for this mismatch between reality and rep-resentation were several: on the one hand, the practice of producing new cartography (in this case, however, without any practical, cadastral or military purposes) based only on previous maps and without any update on the basis of field work; on the other hand, a feeling of fascination and admiration for a great project at the beginning of the Grand Duchy era, which probably led some cartographers to exhume a city that had long disappeared in the 18th century, implicitly wishing to recover it. Among the most significant cases in this regard, the contribution discusses the maps produced by the military engineer Edward Warren (1749), those drawn by Antonio and Luigi Giachi (1771, 1773, 1780 ca., 1782) and, above all, those by Ferdinando Morozzi (1778) or derived from other works by him (1774).
Nel più ampio contesto della politica di Cosimo I tesa a presidiare i confini dapprima dello stato mediceo e poi granducale fondandovi nuovi insediamenti urbani, il 14 lu¬glio 1566 fu posta la prima pietra di un nuovo centro sulla sommità del Sasso di Simone (Sestino, Arezzo), massiccio calcareo posto fra Valtiberina e Montefeltro. L’insediamento, realizzato da Leonardo di Carlo da Nipozzano con il contribu¬to di Battista di Francesco Zani, venne sostanzialmente com¬pletato entro la metà degli anni Settanta del XVI secolo e fu inizialmente limitato ad alcune decine di case, una chiesa, una torre e alcune infrastrutture (una strada di accesso in¬tagliata nell’acrocoro roccioso, una cisterna funzionale alla raccolta delle acque piovane). L’impervia ubicazione som¬mitale ad alta quota (circa 1200 m slm) in un’area ristretta, i grandi costi di manutenzione, il peggioramento climatico connesso alla Piccola Età Glaciale innescatasi in quegli stessi anni (1550-1850 circa) decretarono però un rapido fallimen¬to di questa fondazione, che attorno al 1590 arrivò a conta¬re un centinaio di abitanti, ridottisi a 46 nel 1627. Nel 1673 iniziò il disarmo definitivo della città, la quale, già agli ini¬zi del XVIII secolo, appariva completamente abbandonata. Ciononostante, per quasi tutto il Settecento la fondazione urbana sulla sommità del Sasso di Simone continuò a essere rappresentata nella cartografia del periodo lorenese come esistente e abitata. Le ragioni di questo scollamento tra re¬altà e rappresentazione furono duplici: da un lato, la prassi di elaborare nuova cartografia (in questo caso priva però di finalità pratiche, catastali o militari) basandosi solo su carte precedenti e senza riscontri autoptici sul terreno; dall’altro, un sentimento di fascinazione e di ammirazione per un gran¬de progetto mediceo agli esordi dell’epoca granducale, il quale portò verosimilmente alcuni cartografi ad attualizzare a tutto il XVIII secolo una città da tempo scomparsa, vagheg¬giandone implicitamente un recupero o una riproposizione. Tra i casi più significativi in proposito, il contributo discu¬te le carte prodotte dall’ingegnere militare Odoardo Warren (1749), quelle elaborate da Antonio e Luigi Giachi (1771, 1773, 1780 circa, 1782) e soprattutto quelle di Ferdinando Morozzi (1778) oppure derivate da altri suoi lavori (1774).
In the broader context of Cosimo I’s policy of strength¬ening the borders of the Medici state/Grand Duchy of Tuscany by founding new urban settlements, on July 14th 1566 the foundation stone was laid for a new city on the top of Sasso di Simone (Municipality of Sestino, Province of Arezzo), a limestone massif located between the Valtiberina and Montefeltro (Northern-Central Apennines, Italy). The settlement, whose construction was undertaken by Leonardo di Carlo da Nipozzano with the contribution of Battista di Francesco Zani, was substantially completed by the mid-1570s and was initially limited to a few dozen houses, a church, a tower and some infrastructures (an ac¬cess road carved into the bedrock, a cistern used to col¬lect rainwater). However, the impervious location at a high altitude (about 1200 m a.s.l.) in a restricted area, the high maintenance costs, and the climate change related to the inset of the Little Ice Age (1550-1850 ca.) implied a failure of this foundation, which around 1590 had about a hundred inhabitants, later reduced to 46 in 1627. In 1673 the reuse of the building materials of the town began; by early 18th century the city of Sasso di Simone was already completely abandoned. Nevertheless, for almost the entire 18th cen¬tury, this urban foundation continued to be mapped in the cartography of the Lorraine period as existing and inhabit¬ed. The reasons for this mismatch between reality and rep-resentation were several: on the one hand, the practice of producing new cartography (in this case, however, without any practical, cadastral or military purposes) based only on previous maps and without any update on the basis of field work; on the other hand, a feeling of fascination and admiration for a great project at the beginning of the Grand Duchy era, which probably led some cartographers to exhume a city that had long disappeared in the 18th century, implicitly wishing to recover it. Among the most significant cases in this regard, the contribution discusses the maps produced by the military engineer Edward Warren (1749), those drawn by Antonio and Luigi Giachi (1771, 1773, 1780 ca., 1782) and, above all, those by Ferdinando Morozzi (1778) or derived from other works by him (1774).
Publisher
EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste
Source
Stefano Piastra, "Reminiscenze di una fondazione urbana abortita. Sasso di Simone (Sestino, AR) nella cartografia granducale del XVIII secolo" in: "Bollettino dell'Associazione Italiana di Cartografia 181 (2024)", EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste, Trieste, 2025, pp. 126-138
Languages
it
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
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