ABSTRACT
The study of the Geography stimulated a new interest in cartography which in time resulted in decisive cartographic reforms. Geography-minded Florentines found themselves suddenly facing a microcosmic mirror of the known world, aided by an expert interpretation of a body of ancient geographic knowledge and theory that had until then been unknown to them. Several elements predestined the Council of Florence to become the natural setting for a final synthesis of Florentine geographic thought. The council itself had been moved from Ferrara to Florence at Cosimo Medici's invitation, mainly for the purpose of raising the international prestige of Florence. Modern Renaissance specialists have wondered whether the recovery of the vital classical work could really have had no effect upon the thinking of the explorers. The whole idea that the fifteenth-century Renaissance evolved in a climate of pure aesthetic delight, inhospitable to the rise of science, has come in for serious challenge.
