For a problematization of municipal administration: textual sources to the cartography of synthesis (Lyon 16th-18th centuries)

Resumen

The study of Lyons in modern times shows that it is impossi­ble to understand the action of municipal autho­rities only from written sources. This is because they refer generally to places difficult to locate precisely, and because they seem to be only limi­ted actions. Only a general narrative is possible working that way. The precise mapping makes appear the logics implicitly operating beyond apparently isolated decisions, locating every house, associating houses and names, infor­ming the street transformations. The clusters of spatial events on the map show associated decisions otherwise impossible to see: series of re-buildings along new lines, paving of street sections, water conduits, location of wealth and poverty, political links. Thus, planning lo­gics not mentioned in written sources become obvious. Geography helps making a history that be also a history in space and weaved with ur­ban fabric