In the pivotal historical context of the Italian Risorgimento, cartography did not merely serve a documentary purpose or simply depict the territory; rather, it emerged as a genuine strategic and geopolitical tool. An example of this is the map “Italia Superiore ed i Ducati contenente i più minuti dettagli possibili alla scala di 1/1111111.11 per illustrazione degli avvenimenti della guerra dell’Indipendenza d’Italia publicata da Gio. Richetti incisore geografo” designed and engraved by Modotti and published in Turin in 1859 by Giovanni Richetti.
The map covers the whole of Northern Italy, extending from the Kingdom of Sardinia and the Western Alps to Istria and the Adriatic coasts, and reaching south to include the Po Valley Duchies, Tuscany, and the Papal Legations.
The scale chosen is the unique and rigorous mathematical expression of 1/1111111.11 (one millionth and one hundred and eleven thousandths), a meticulous calculation derived from the fractions of the Earth’s meridian degree, typical of the Savoy geodetic school of the period.
In the lower right corner, the “Conventional Signs” serve as a scientific legend, identifying provincial capitals, fortifications, and strategic junctions.
1859 was a year of great upheaval that would mark an irreversible turning point in the process of national unification. The Franco-Piedmontese military campaigns against the Austrian Empire, the battles of Magenta, Solferino, and San Martino, and the sudden uprisings in the Emilian Duchies (Modena and Parma) and the Grand Duchy of Tuscany were redrawing the borders established by the Congress of Vienna.
In this climate of feverish anticipation and constant updates, the educated public, the military, and international diplomats needed maps that were easy to handle yet extremely detailed to track—either on the battlefield or in the newspapers of the time—the movements of troops and the evolution of the front lines. Richetti’s work responds precisely to this urgency: “the illustration of the events of the war,” as stated in the lengthy title, explicitly defines its function as a real-time historical and strategic aid.
Giovanni Richetti was a leading figure in Turin’s publishing and cartographic circles during the mid-19th century. Active as an engraver and official geographer at the Royal General Staff of the Kingdom of Sardinia, he linked his name to some of the most important state cartographic projects of the Savoy era, including the monumental Topographic Map of the Mainland States of His Majesty the King of Sardinia at a scale of 1:50,000 (begun in 1841 and printed in the following decades). Skilled at combining military topographic rigor with the demands of the private publishing market, Richetti directed and published several maps and city plans on his own, always imbuing them with the highest scientific accuracy and elegant execution.
