Survey Map of the Arno Valley near Pisa
Bird's-eye plan showing Pisa, the Arno and Serchio, canals, bridges and marshes
This coloured watercolour is a bird's-eye survey map of the lower Arno valley around Pisa, part of Leonardo's survey of the Arno valley. It shows the Arno, the Serchio and the Fiume Morto (Dead River), bridges such as the Ponte al Serchio and Ponte Arbavola, marshes (padule), and the walled town of Pisa, with dozens of place-names lettered across folios 52v and 53r. Named settlements and features run from Torre a Filicaia, Librafatta, Bagno and San Piero in Grado to Coltano, Castagnolo, Bientina and Pontedera. Rivers and wet ground are washed in blue, higher ground and towns picked out in yellow and ochre.
On this page
Place-names of the Serchio-Pisa plain (folio 52v)
The left half of the map is lettered with sites from Torre a Filicaia, the Serchio, Librafatta, the Ponte al Serchio and Bagno down through San Jacopo, Fiume Morto, the Arno, San Piero in Grado, Barbaricina, La Vettola and Pisa itself, to Torre di Foce, Coltano and the castles of Cascina.
Place-names toward Bientina and Pontedera (folio 53r)
The adjoining half of the survey names Vornio, Asciano, Agnano, Calci, Vico Pisano, Bientina and its lakes, Caprona, Calcinaia, Cascina, Fornacetta and Pontedera, along with ditches such as the Fosso Vecchio and Fossa Nuova and the river Era.
The Arno, Serchio and drainage of the Pisan plain
Blue washes trace the winding Arno, the Serchio and the Fiume Morto, with marshes (padule) and drainage works such as the Fosso Doppio; the walled town of Pisa sits astride the Arno at the map's centre.