Reconstructing the Past                   

Washington & Lee The Columns

In 1584, a friar in Florence, Italy, created a hand-drawn map of the city with incredible accuracy and detail. This summer, a group of Washington and Lee University Summer Research Scholars has continued his work using 21st-century tools to illuminate the city’s architectural layers.  

The project has received international support and recognition over the past eight years; the team recently received a grant from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation to support student research work, and the project was featured in a case study and documentary produced by Leica Geosystems, a Swiss surveying company whose 3D laser-scanning products have been used to create the digital reconstruction of Florence. The team is also part of a consortium that was selected by The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to receive one of the organization’s Humanities Collections and Reference Resources (HCRR) grant for the next two years. 

Read more from Washington & Lee The Columns.