Florence was one of the first centres of interest and activity in the range of mathematical work that characterised the Renaissance, with its 15th-century interest in the geometry of cartography, surveying and perspective. The trade counterpart to this cultivation of geometry is best represented by the workshop established by Lorenzo della Volpaia in the second half of the century. His descendants kept the workshop active through the 16th century, when others involved in the production of instruments in Florence were Egnatio Danti and Giovanni Battista Giusti. Patronage of the mathematical arts was a characteristic interest of the Medici Dukes of Tuscany.
