What is the origin of the maps? What was initially the objective of capturing a geographical space in writing? The geographer and writer Josep Vicent Boira argues that most of the time these actions benefited the promoters of the map, showing the space as it suited them and defining a geopolitical space. "From here on, the strategic nature of cartographic representation has become proverbial: the power of the map soon became the maps of power."
The history of cartographic representations in Valencian lands has a clear and early baptismal certificate: 1584. The Kingdom of Valencia was represented for the first time that year with the map known as Abraham Ortelius (1527-1598), who was its editor. (Catalonia did not have a printed map until 1603). Josep Vicent Boira defends that it is a "document of extraordinary value as it is the first representation of our territory."
This is one of the maps that can be seen in the exhibition "Maps, power and territory" that he has curated and that can be visited at the Valencian Library, in Sant Miquel dels Reis. "That map managed to individualize the Kingdom of Valencia and has unquestionable geopolitical importance; it is a fundamental reference of our history as a people," he adds.
Boira comments that this map had a commercial objective. And he adds that Abraham Ortelius probably did not travel through the Kingdom of Valencia. And he defends the hypothesis that it was made to order based on the notes that Jeroni Muñoz had previously made, who was a renowned geographer and astronomer.
Fifty pieces make up the exhibition: maps, atlases and other documents that, Boira emphasizes, testify not only to the strategic role of cartography, but also to the beauty of representation, the taste for decoration and details, the political charge of its content, the evolution of the techniques of representation of the world, the vision of each moment." The cartographic treasure of Biblioteca Valenciana allows an exciting journey of almost 440 years "through the way of representing ourselves as a people, of recognizing ourselves and of offering ourselves to the rest of peoples of the planet".
The representation of the entire Valencian territory, its administrative divisions throughout history and cities and towns "allow us to place ourselves in a narrative that not only tells us about ourselves, but also about our relationship with the most illustrious centers of cartographic production. of Europe, like the city of Antwerp in the 16th and 17th centuries or Paris in the 18th".
The exhibition is structured into four thematic sections and a central one. Three of them cover the strategic functions of cartography throughout history: its essential role in the education and training of people; the instrumental function associated with power and the organization of the territory and the strategic role of the map in war.
Along with these three sections, a fourth echoes the heritage of the Valencian Library in terms of aerial photography, the result of the custody of the very rich collection of the Spanish Company of Aerial Photogrammetric Works, which has aerial images of Valencian towns and cities of the 40s of the 20th century and that we can compare with today.
Finally, a fifth section shows the three jewels of the exhibition: the first printed map of the Valencian territory (Ortelius, 1584) - as well as the no less valuable sequence of Flemish maps from the 17th century - the map of Tomàs López (1788) , "of a technical elegance that will open a new stage in the way of representing space following French trends." And, finally, an early 18th century engraving of the well-known 1704 plan by the oratorian Vicent Tomàs Tosca, still to be restored, but of which only one other copy is preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
The Valencian Library wanted to share this essential piece of European urban cartography, taking advantage of the commemoration of the 300th anniversary of the death of the author who gave rise to this engraving, Father Tosca (1651-1723).
The history of Valencian cartography, Boira points out, is European history. Ortelius, Hondius, Mercator, Jansonnius, Blaeu, López, Cavanilles, Tofiño, Suchet, Arteche, Ferrer, Cortina, Boix, Vilanova..., will accompany us in this opportunity to discover one of the most important treasures that we have and that defines us as a people: the representation of our territory. At the same time "it allows us to reflect on the functions that the map has had, has and will have in the life of societies, allowing us a critical vision that keeps alive our discernment about the processes we live."
The exhibition of the Valencian Library in the old refectory of San Miguel de los Reyes de València transports us to other rooms where maps show their splendor, such as the Terrazzo delle carte geografiche degli Uffizi in Florence, a work promoted by Ferdinando I de Medici at the end of the Cinquecento, or to the Galleria delle carte geografiche of the Vatican, wanted by Pope Gregory
