About us

The Cartografia Visceglia board president
Prof. Vincenzo Visceglia (1942)

The "Istituto Geografico Visceglia " was founded in 1929  thanks to prof. Vincenzo Visceglia.
For 70 years it produces cartographic publications which call the attention of town planners, engineers, municipal, industrial and tourist authorities.
Visceglia maps have been an essential tool for accomplishing town planning schemes and for studying urban projects.
Today our company can supply extensive good-quality traditional cartography, such as maps for tourism, for marketing, and wall maps for school.
Visceglia's wealth is made of hundreds of original hand made cartographic bases drawn by expert designers, a library, and an archive of rare and antique maps.

Creation of Geo-Art department (1942)

Torino-VI Urban Congress (October 1956)

Vincenzo and Rosangela Visceglia in the '50

He directs his interest specifically to geography, the science which studies, interprets, describes and represents the Earth in its changeable aspects. But it is towards the representations of human activites that Vincenzo Visceglia demonstrates his peculiar sensitivity. He is fascinated by that series of scientific, technical and not least artistic operations that allow the elaboration and installation onto flat or spherical surfaces (maps or globes) of those phenomena observable on earth. These are of geographic, demographic, political, economic, statistic and historical nature.

The Visceglia Report, fortnightly magazine on the Institute's activities (1943)

Vincenzo Visceglia

In 1929, this deep interest brings him, at only 25 years of age, to found the Visceglia Geographical Institute.
The following year, he realises the institute's first publication: the Toponomastic guide of Rome.
It is an accurate general map of the city, where the attention to details prevails.
This guide proves a unique publication in its type. The subdivision in tables, the indication of  street numbers, and the pleasant design, make the consultation easy revealing a particular customer care.
This Guide, continuously updated and renovated, has been object of numerous and authoritative declarations of appreciation and esteem.
Since its foundation, the Visceglia Geographical Institute, thanks to the Professor's constant inspirational drive, carries-out numerous publications that arise the interest of specialists concerned with urban and territorial planning.

During the '60-s Vincenzo Visceglia manifests a fervid editorial activity publishing updated general maps of more than 100 cities of Italy, the provincial capitals.The whole collection: the Urban Atlas of Italy ("Atlante Urbanistico d'Italia"), constitutes a unique and innovative work for the time.

In 1929, this deep interest brings him, at only 25 years of age, to found the Visceglia Geographical Institute. The following year, he realises the institute's first publication: the Toponomastic guide of Rome.  It is an accurate general map of the city, where the attention to details prevails. This guide proves a unique publication in its type. The subdivision in tables, the indication of  street numbers, and the pleasant design, make the consultation easy revealing a particular customer care.

This Guide, continuously updated and renovated, has been object of numerous and authoritative declarations of appreciation and esteem. Since its foundation, the Visceglia Geographical Institute, thanks to the Professor's constant inspirational drive, carries-out numerous publications that arise the interest of specialists concerned with urban and territorial planning.

During the '60-s Vincenzo Visceglia manifests a fervid editorial activity publishing updated general maps of more than 100 cities of Italy, the provincial capitals.The whole collection: the Urban Atlas of Italy ("Atlante Urbanistico d'Italia"), constitutes a unique and innovative work for the time. Today, Visceglia "Maps of Rome" and " Maps of Lazio",  published with the volumes of the Institute of Roman Studies, turn out to be precious historical documents. For more than 40 years Vincenzo Visceglia devotes himself to the collection of original antique cartography and ancient publications. He fills the institute's archive, which today holds a selection of original panels and maps edited by the Chamber's Calcography(1700) and rare geographic books coming from the antiquities market.

Inspired by this precious material, Prof. Visceglia starts reproducing antique geographic maps and realising chalk and wooden globes: perfect copies of old objects proving a good quality artistic handicraft. Not only does he reproduce antique prints, but he also creates "geographic gadgets" of interior design, the so-called "geo-art",  highly innovative for that time.

A vivid mind, fervid with ideas, that of Vincenzo Visceglia, who managed to unite in an intelligent manner, scientific rigour and research with a fertile publishing and commercial activity. His life was dedicated to cartography treated as science as well as art with a special aesthetic awareness. "You should give beauty to customers even when this could seem sterile and unnecessary", he often repeated with convinction.

Still today Visceglia maps have a high visibility. Geographic school maps hanging on any order and level of classroom, have been a point of reference for the basic geographic culture of many generations of students. Vincenzo Visceglia's last effort, the big general map of Rome in scale 1:10.000, which is today continuously updated, displayed in the underground, in train stations, airports and often used in film fictions, should also be remembered.

Visceglia’s shipping office (1942)

The cultural and human inheritance left to us by Vincenzo Visceglia is surely extraordinary having resisted three generations, with no big shakes. In fact, this inheritance today is still rich in innovations and developments. After Vincenzo Visceglia,'s death, in Rome in 1971, it was with the same enthusiasm and dynamic spirit of his founder, that the institute continued its activities under the daughter's direction, Rosangela. She initially worked in close collaboration with the Professor and then, for 25 years, as the society's director.

Rosangela Visceglia, director of Visceglia for 25 years  after Vincenzo Visceglia's

Rosangela Visceglia e Laura Ottaviani together with the event organized by the "Centro Studi Lucania in the World" in Rome in 2000 to remember the figure of Vincenzo Visceglia.

Laura Ottaviani holder of Cartografica Visceglia

In 1989, the council of Rome names after  Prof. Visceglia, a road in the Vallerano-Trigoria area acknowledging his devotion to the city after many years of publishing commitment.

Road of Rome, in the quarter dedicated to publishers.