The Great Italian Geographical and Economic Atlas of the World "Spectacle of the Terrestrial Globe"

Summary

This article critically reviews the Grande Atlante Geografico Economico “Theatrum Orbis Terrarum,” published in Italy in 1958 by the Italian institute in cooperation with the De Agostini Geographical Institute. Conceived as a modern successor to Abraham Ortelius’s sixteenth-century atlas, the volume aims to provide a comprehensive representation of the world’s natural environment, population, economy, transport networks, and international economic relations. The review examines its organization, thematic coverage, cartographic methods, statistical foundations, and regional balance. The atlas contains 693 maps—113 physical and 580 economic—supplemented by numerous inset maps, diagrams, graphs, historical maps, a geographical glossary, and an extensive index. Its world maps address climate, tectonics, seismicity, population, agriculture, mineral resources, industry, trade, and transport, while continental and national sections combine general physical maps with sectoral economic mapping. Italy receives exceptionally detailed treatment through 83 maps covering natural conditions, population, agriculture, industry, energy, transportation, tourism, culture, regional income, investment, and foreign trade. The Soviet Union, Europe, North America, Asia, Africa, and other regions are represented with varying degrees of detail and with themes adapted to regional characteristics. The atlas effectively employs dot maps, choropleths, cartodiagrams, area symbols, flow lines, and statistical graphics, making its extensive quantitative data highly accessible. Particularly valuable are uncommon or innovative themes such as seismicity, Quaternary glaciation, ocean salinity, tropical diseases, tourism, and commodity flows. Nevertheless, the review identifies weaknesses, including inconsistent scales and layouts, omitted scale indications, overcrowded labeling, outdated relief depiction by hachures, uneven regional coverage, and occasional combinations of unrelated phenomena or illogical legends. Overall, despite methodological limitations and the still-undeveloped conventions of world economic atlases, the publication is judged a substantial cartographic and reference achievement that broadly reflects contemporary geographical knowledge and demonstrates the analytical potential of integrated physical and economic mapping.