Apology of Human Geography in Daniello Bartoli’s Work

The article explores the work of Daniello Bartoli, a 17th-century Jesuit writer, particularly his La geografia trasportata al morale (The Geography Morally Read). Bartoli’s approach to geography intertwines moral allegories with descriptions of geographic regions, using each place as a metaphor to illustrate various human virtues and vices. His work reflects Catholic and Baroque aesthetics, embedding religious and moral teachings into geographical narratives. Bartoli’s geographic work diverges from traditional Jesuit historiography, emphasizing a “moral geography” that reflects on humanity’s collective and individual moral journeys rather than focusing solely on religious achievements. His descriptions are influenced by the Jesuit educational framework, especially the emphasis on sensory imagination from Ignatius Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises. The work aligns geography with history and morality, portraying human landscapes as stages for ethical reflection. Bartoli advocates that geography, when combined with history, serves as a comprehensive portrayal of human experience, capturing both physical and spiritual realms.The text examines how Bartoli’s geography served pedagogical purposes in Jesuit schools, training memory and rhetorical skills through geographical and historical narratives. His moralized geography sustained popularity in Italy, particularly for its eloquent prose. Bartoli’s legacy and his contribution to humanistic Jesuit literature remain significant, reflecting an era when geography, history, and moral teaching intertwined to educate and reflect on human conduct within a global context.