Resumen de Catalogue of Surveying and Related Instruments: Museo Galileo, by Jim Bennett
Most museum collections are very diverse in their origins, and the provenance of individual objects often goes back no further than their modern dealers or donors. Museo Galileo in Florence is different. Its early collections are preserved mostly as they were assembled by the Medici. They therefore provide excellent evidence for the meaning and materiality of late renaissance and early-modern approaches to knowledge and practice. Surveying particularly benefits from such a period-specific perspective: prior to its subsequent sober professionalism, it displayed considerable intellectual and aesthetic élan. This catalogue shows how, in a courtly setting, the instruments of surveying embodied a range of values -not just precision and utility, but also spectacle and artistry
