Ninth International Conference on The Constructed Environment

Abstract

Considering historical iconography and written records of journeys as a fundamental source to the acknowledge of the spatial and cultural heritage (namely its places, people and interactions), this communication aims to unveil the Portuguese seventeenth century spatial and cultural framework through Pier Maria Baldi’s and Lorenzo Magalotti’s eyes, which reported the European tour undertaken by Cosimo III of Medici. Between 1668 and 1669 the Tuscan prince, future Grand Duke Cosimo III, embarked on a journey through Spain, Portugal, Ireland, England, Holland, Flanders and France. A trip that comprised political, diplomatic, and economic purposes, in addition to the prince’s cultural and political apprenticeship. If the official travel diary, written by Magalotti, describes visited places and people with whom the prince interacted, the graphic records by Baldi, preserved in the Laurentian Library in Florence, reveal a vision of the Portuguese urban fabric (Elvas, Évora, Lisbon, Santarém, Coimbra, Porto, Viana, etc.) as well as an image of its rural areas (Aldeia Galega, Via Longa, Grijó, Moreira da Maia, etc.). Both indispensable documents in order to acknowledge a piece of Europe’s identity puzzle, linking its nations, cultures, and agents. As such, and following Cosimo’s path on Portuguese land, we are guided through the drawn Vedute of Pier Maria Baldi, aiming to explore a specific stratum of the Portuguese constructed palimpsest, a vision Portugal’s constructed environment during the seventeenth century. However, Baldi’s vision, is not an objective record, revealing simultaneously facts of the visited places along with shapes of the author’s cultural context.