EARLY MODERN
HISTORY
Mapping the Early Modern City: HGIS in the Classroom
As a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Toronto, I worked on DECIMA, a Historical Geographic Information Systems (HGIS) project which layers historical social data onto a georeferenced historical map of sixteenth-century Florence, making possible new spatial insights. In the course Digital and Social History, students used ESRI Storymaps, Arc-GIS, CityEngine, and SketchUp, and learned digital skills like image optimization, data structuring, and map georeferencing to ask and answer questions about the early modern city. See below for student work and a Digital Studies syllabus.
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Through the digital manipulation of DECIMA data, I was able to compare sixteenth centuiry property values and residence patterns shedding light on early modern workshop ownership, lay religious involvement, and the housing of Jews and prostitutes as a conversion strategy. These insights formed the basis of "Who Owned Florence?: Religious Institutions and Property Ownership in the Early Modern City," co-written with Dr. Nicholas Terpstra for The Journal of Early Modern History. Click below for it!
Online historical mapping and social data of early modern Florence at the University of Toronto.
This image shows the georeferenced Buonsignori Map from 1561 and a sample data palette from DECIMA. Click here to read how I used property values to gain insight into the early modern city!
Through the STEP project, I introduced students to digital social history and manipulating historical data. Click here to see a sample Digital Humanities syllabus.
In 1561, ducal scribes tabulated residential data for all of Florence. Dozens of DECIMA paleographers transcribed it and plotted it on a georeferenced map. To see it, click here.
Using ESRI's City Engine software, we traced the footprints of early modern Florentine buildings and extruded the buildings. To learn more about City Engine, click here.
Using ESRI StoryMaps and other softwares, students created online projects and displays. To see some student projects, click here.