Via Newsweek - The current tyrants governments of the United States, Russia and China may be wishing for a three superpower world where spheres of influence are carved up among them.   You can hover to identify the countries.  Apparently the southern hemisphere does not rate much with any of these leaders so maybe that’s the place to go if you’re looking for freedom.

Medieval Murder Maps is a project of the Violence Research Center at the University of Cambridge. Using data from the coroners of the cities of London, Oxford and York they have created maps showing the locations of murders in the 14th Century. Sadly the image above (from York) does not indicate death by pancake. That is merely the murderers name, though it makes for a great headline. The red icons indicate female victims or perpetrators while blue are men. here is a legend to translate the murder weapon, and incident type. London, unlike the other cities has a full menu of incident types. A click on an incident gives you more information. Unlike today, murders correlate more with areas of affluence and college students are frequently listed. In London there is a large cluster or murders on the western end of Cheapside (or Westcheap), an area of upscale clothing stores now. The background maps are from the Historic Towns Trust who create modern digital historic maps that represent the towns as they appeared at the time. For London, you can also switch backgrounds to see a map from Braun and Hogenburg, circa 1560. Credit to a recent Washington Post article for bringing this site to my attention. Explore on your own here.

I will finish off my series of posts from my recent trip to Italy with a few random maps I saw in my travels. Hopefully these are interesting beyond my personal whims. I will start with this raised relief map of the Valpolicella wine region hanging on the wall of the Tenuta Santa Maria winery.  Here is a close up to better see the nice three dimensional detail. The winery is located at the red dot. Nearby the winery in Fumane (upper left of the above map) we had a fantastic meal at the Enoteca Valpolicella, part of a group of slow food Premiate Trattorie Italiane. "21 establishments that share the same values, starting from the desire to communicate and promote the territory they belong to through the culture of good food made of ancient traditions and family warmth." Their web site has this map so you can travel your way through the country eating some of the best regional food in each area. The sommelier could even point out the window to where the wine came from! While the above map could be described as "nothing special" I like the antique like look of the terrain and appreciate when anyone takes the time to make a map that doesn't come from Google. Speaking of nothing special here is a hand drawn map hanging in the Pesce Rosso (red fish) gallery in the town of Bassano del Grappa. It basically says see our other location across the river but does a nice job illustrating Bassano's famous Andrea Palladio designed bridge. Another shop in Bassano sells amber jewelry and features this hand drawn map of the Amber Trail hanging on its wall. This was a trade route used to bring amber from the Baltic countries to the Mediterranean via Venice. The trail has a trans-national greenway running through Poland, Slovakia and Hungary.  That concludes the "random maps I took photos of" series.

The first ghetto was established in 1516 in Venice, Italy. Jewish residents were forced to live in a small industrial area by the government and locked in at night. Here is a picture of a ghetto map from I took while there a few weeks ago.  According to the sign Jews were only allowed to work as doctors, money lenders or second hand clothing sellers. The ghetto was expanded to two squares, the Ghetto Vecchio (old, which is actually the newer one) and Nuovo (new). After the French took over Venice in 1797, Jews were finally allowed to freely move about the city but this area remained a center of Jewish culture. It still is despite most of Venice’s Jews having been murdered in the Holocaust. There are still a handful of restaurants and places of worship. The origins of the word ghetto are disputed. It could mean foundry, street, little town or “throw away” depending on which theory you choose. Here is a simplified (but also hard to read) map of the area by artist Gianluca Costantini.

There was no Map of the Week last week. That is because I was on vacation in northern Italy with my wife and brother in law who provided some local knowledge and translation services. A typical vacation for me involves taking pictures of interesting maps I find along the way. There are at least a couple of blog posts worth of these maps. Here is a tapestry map (a mapestry?) I saw in the airport in Venice.   Often there is an interesting story behind the maps that is not obvious at first glance. Especially when the map is hanging on the way to the airport security line where one cannot linger for long. This tapestry was commissioned by the Italian Olympic Committee to hang in Casa Italia, the residence that hosted Italy’s athletes in Paris for the 2024 Olympics. Giovanni Bonotto, creative director of textile manufacturer Fabrica Lenta directed the project. It was woven on wooden mechanical shuttle looms dating from 1956. It The map showcases Italian innovators, architecture, industry, regional products and food. At the bottom left corner is a list of regional dishes. Artificial Intelligence was used to design the icons on the map. The entire tapestry is made from recycled plastic yarn as a tribute to the circular economy. Appropriately the map, showing Marco Polo now hangs in the Venice Marco Polo Airport.  You can see a video of Bonotto’s process here.