Court calligrapher, mapmaker and engineer
Giovanni Tommaso Borgonio
The Savoy court’s mapmaker, who drew Turin and Piedmont for the dukes.
On Picturepops™ cards · 1
The life
about 1620–1683
Giovanni Tommaso Borgonio served the dukes of Savoy in Turin as calligrapher, mapmaker and engineer, and filled albums with paintings recording the court’s festivals and ballets. His great survey of their lands, the Carta generale de’ Stati di Sua Altezza Reale, was published in 1680, and many of his town views appeared in the Theatrum Sabaudiae, printed in Amsterdam by the heirs of Joan Blaeu in 1682. Our card, Gran Madre di Dio, Turin, opens onto his old bird’s-eye map of Turin.