During 2021 the collections of the Museum of Geography of the University of Padua were significantly enhanced by a number of extraordinary objects, thanks to a double donation of atlases, maps, landscapes and antique books by the antiquarian and collector Armando Morbiato.
Many years of journeys undertaken for work purposes nurtured Morbiato’s passion for geographical charts. Some time after his return to Veneto, this “enchanted traveller” — to paraphrase the title of the recently published diary in which he recounts the story of his life — decided to turn this passion into activity.
The collection of maps, atlases and travel literature accumulated by Morbiato has now been entrusted to the museum so that it can be seen and enjoyed by an ever-growing community. With the first bequest of 18 May 2021 the museum received thirty-nine volumes, composed of atlases and other types of books containing geographical charts, starting with the 1493 Liber Chronicarum by Hartmann Schedel, and also eighteen geographical charts, the oldest of which was created by Vincenzo Coronelli in 1690. In December 2021 the second donation further enlarged the museum’s collection with twenty-three travel books dating from the eighteenth century, and with 274 geographical charts and landscapes, the first of which was produced over 500 years ago.
In this video we bring you one of the many conversations that the museum has had with Armando Morbiato during these years of acquaintance, dialogue and mutual esteem.