Map of the Lower Valdarno and Arno Valley
Watercoloured survey of Tuscany between Pisa and Florence, with a note on water rights for mills
A coloured map of the lower Arno valley fills the leaf: the river winds in blue past hills and high ground washed in yellow-ochre, and dozens of Tuscan towns are labelled in mirror-script, among them Pisa, Empoli, Fucecchio, Prato, Pistoia and Florence. A short note at the head of folio 23r sets out a legal rule that whoever wishes to build mills may lead his water across any man's land on payment of double its value. The facing verso (22v) carries a further column of place names running from Lucca down to the mouth of the Arno. Show-through of writing from the reverse of the sheet is faintly visible behind the map.
On this page
Coloured survey of the lower Arno valley
The Arno is drawn in blue as it meanders across the sheet, with the hills and high ground filled by a yellow-ochre wash. Towns are marked by small ringed dots and named in mirror-script, tracing the country from Pisa and Empoli in the west toward Prato, Pistoia and Florence in the east.
A law allowing millers to carry water across any land
A note records the principle that anyone who wishes to build mills may lead his waters over any ground, paying double its value. It reads as a memorandum of water rights bearing on the canal-and-mill schemes of the valley.
Column of towns from Lucca to the mouth of the Arno
The facing page lists settlements running from San Gennaro and Lucca southward through Vicopisano, Caprona and Cascina to Pisa and the river's mouth (Foce). The names key the same territory that the coloured map depicts.