Heritage Landscapes vol.25

Can one observe a place through hundreds of thousands of ancient maps? To see its characters and rulers change over time, its borders alter, its history being told in a new way through a single glance? Yes. It's called OldMapsOnline.

Ancient maps are not just representations of places, but fragments of collective memory, evidence of eras when the world was less known, more mysterious, and paper was not just a tool, but a terrain where science and imagination intertwined. OldMapsOnline is the largest search engine for high-resolution ancient maps on the Internet, making accessible over 500 thousand scanned maps from institutions around the world.

The site nimbly links a timeline, ancient maps, and third-party sites such as Wikipedia, turning every visit into a journey. There is medieval Europe with uncertain borders and margins adorned with dragons and fantastical creatures, there is Renaissance Venice, or 19th-century America mapped with the frenzy of someone trying to encapsulate the immensity and promise of a continent in a finished drawing.

By selecting a year, the map updates to show related historical data, reflecting political boundaries, battles and key figures. The project aims to digitize and make accessible maps from archives and libraries around the world, creating a collaborative platform for the discovery and preservation of global cartographic heritage. It is an invitation to explore not only the world of yesterday, but also the imagery that made our today possible.

For the third chapter of RE/ICONS-after reclaiming archival legends such as the Maya jacket in 2022 and the Karakorum jacket in 2023-Moncler, in 2024, has reclaimed an icon from the 1980s: the Moncler Verone. For this year, the down jacket has been reimagined in two new proposals: the Verone AI, an extreme, oversized variant of the boxy down jacket rewritten through artificial intelligence; and the Verone Opus, which extends down to the feet, recalling the shapes an elegant dress.

At the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, on the west side of the Louvre, there is a corner where stories are told through rings, necklaces, and bracelets. The Galerie des Bijoux, with more than 1,200 pieces of jewelry, is a journey that begins in the Middle Ages and reaches the present day, an atlas of sparkles, lights, and meanings. Thanks to digitization between 2013 and 2016, one can rediscover the details of Jean Després' works or Gilles Jonemann's play on materials. The museum is also hosting, until April 2025, an exhibition on the Maison Christofle, showing how, from its founding in the 1830s to the present, this line of goldsmiths, started by Charles Christofle and Henri Bouilhet, has transformed the forms and decorations of silverware to the point where they have become part of everyday life.

It was 1974 when a young Hungarian architect, Ernő Rubik, shaped an object that was not just a game, but a puzzle for the hands and mind. Six faces, 54 colored squares, and an implicit promise: all chaos has its order. Since then, the Rubik's Cube has passed from hand to hand, from a child's table to the hall of a world competition. At 50 years old, it has not lost its mystery: the world is still reflected in its colors.

Credits: OldMapsOnline; Moncler; Musée des Arts Décoratifs Paris, Maison Christofle; Rubiks

Last November 29, the fourth edition of Legend24 took place at Gallerie d'Italia - Milano. The Legacy of Success: Shaping the Future. The focus was generational transition, one of the most important challenges for a company that aims, really, to cross time to get to the future.

We asked how generational transition can be an opportunity for growth and how heritage can be a lever for ill long-term thinking; how legacy companies can innovate without losing the connection to the founders' vision.

We talked about this with some of the people we esteem for their professionalism, ideas, and vision: Marina Nissim, Andrea Chiesi, Gianluca Colonna, Bernardo Bertoldi, Livia Peraldo, and Paolo Brambilla.

Don't miss the video report of the day!