Geological relief maps
The current rearrangement and systematic study of Paleontological and Lithomineralogical Collections of the former Geological Service of Italy by the APAT Museum Activity Service also includes the reconnaissance and analysis of geological relief maps. Currently, the collection is composed of 17 geological relief maps of dimensions and metrical scales, realized with different techniques (chalk, bronze, etc.). These models were prepared by specialists of the sector starting from the end of the 19th century, side by side with the realization of the Geological Map of Italy. Geologists and Engineers were appointed by the Royal Geological Office to carry out surveys of the identified territories, publishing technical reports on the institute’s main journals, the R. Bollettino del Comitato Geologico d'Italia and the Memorie per servire alla descrizione della Carta Geologica d'Italia (from 1886 entitled only Memorie Descrittive). They accompanied and completed their studies (probably even for didactic purposes) with the execution of the relative relief maps in painted chalk or other material. The authors of some of them are known because they autographed it, such as the three-dimensional reliefs of the Island of Elba (1882) by Bernardino Lotti (1847-1933) and of the Island of Ischia (1884-85) by Luigi Baldacci (1850-1927).
In the 1870s there were still a lot of Italian territories that lacked modern cartographical documentation. For southern Italy, for example, there were no topographical maps. These were realized, with great effort, by the General Staff between 1862 and 1875 with an expense of 2 million lire, a considerable amount for those times. Therefore the first field surveys of scholars of the Royal Geological Office, which often led to the realization of relief maps, are extremely important because they represent a first demographical and geomorphological layout of the country that is also reflected on the occasion of great disasters, such as the earthquake of Casamicciola (Ischia) in 1883. The detailed study was entrusted the following year from Felice Giordano (1825-1892) to Baldacci.
According to current studies, it appears that these three-dimensional geological reliefs were carried out during the period between the transfer of the Geological Office to Rome in 1875 and World War I. The beginning of these activities coincides with the appointment, in 1876, of Felice Giordano as Director of the Royal Geological Service. His duty was the mapping and systematic printing of the Geological Map of Italy.
Giordano’s leadership, despite the budgetary constraints, marks a glorious period for great geological mapping of the Italian land, carried out in an extremely disciplined and professional way, as can be seen also from the relief maps. These have deteriorated with time and require restoration works, among which are mainly cleaning of surfaces and the strengthening and integration of missing parts.
Relief maps of the former Geological Service therefore belong to the historical memory of United Italy starting from 1870. They have a considerable scientific, economic and cultural value. For this reason, some of them - such as Livorno with the Islands of Pianosa and Gorgona (1914); the Island of Elba (1882); the Island of Ischia (1884-85); Monte Soratte- Valle del Tevere (about 1920); Sicily (physical map, about 1881); Etna (before 1870) – were chosen by the Museo Centrale del Risorgimento and exhibited to the public in 2006 during the exhibition entitled: “Italia: Paesaggio e Territorio”. The exhibition was part of a larger governmental project (under the aegis of the Presidency of the Republic) entitled: “Le Radici della Nazione” that will conclude in 2011 with celebrations for the 150th anniversary of the Unity of Italy.
On the same year, other two three-dimensional reliefs – the Geological Relief of the Province of Naples (chalk, end of 19th cent.) and the Monte Vesuvio (bronze, 1870) represented APAT at the exhibition entitled: “Napoli e il suo vulcano. Memorie e documenti”, held at the Roccella Palace of Naples.
Type of collection: historical, didatctic, demonstrative.
General catalogue of reference: no
Arrangement in geographical order.