Stefano Bonsignori (cartographer)

Stefano Bonsignori or Buonsignori (died 21 September 1589, in Florence) was an Italian Olivetan monk and cartographer to Francesco I, Grand Duke of Tuscany.

[1] According to a letter sent to the superior of his congregations, the Grand Duke intended to entrust him with the completion of the cycle of maps for the Guardaroba (cloakroom) in the Palazzo Vecchio, which remained unfinished after the dismissal of Ignazio Danti.

[2][3] His famous axonometric map of Florence was created under the patronage of Francesco between 1576 and 1584 and etched by Bonaventura Billocardi.

[4][5] The prominence of the Arno River and the detailed depiction of a variety of often quite minor water-related structures is telling of the way in which water management had been an important aspect of the policies of Francesco's father, Cosimo I, whose achievements had transformed the city's landscape.

[7] Stefano Bonsignori died in 1589[1] and was buried in the church of Santi Michele e Gaetano, but his tomb disappeared during the seventeenth-century reconstruction of the building.