History, Digital Humanities and Cartography. The Graphic Rendering of the Bourbons’ Cadastre in the First Half of the XIXth Century

In this article we shall attempt the analysis of urban space through thematic rendering based on descriptive cadastral data sources. As evidence for this case study we have chosen the Contribuzione Fondiaria del Comune di Catania for the year 1843. This approach is prompted by a tradition of studies on thematic cartography ranging (to mention but a few important contributions) from the pioneering maps of Jacques Bertin for the 2nd edition (1966) of La Méditerranée of Fernand Braudel to the volumes of Atlas de la Révolution française (1987-2000) edited by l’École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, and from the numerous maps in Atlante storico dell’Italia rivoluzionaria e napoleonica edited by l’École française in Rome to the recent researches on urban history by scholars such as Maurizio Gribaudi, Jean-Luc Arnaud and many others who consider the map as the essential tool for analysis and interpretation.