Having victoriously concluded the war with Siena and inaugurated the political-administrative construction of the new state, Cosimo de’ Medici (1519-1574) began to build the image of power as well, launching a complex program for renovating the ancient Palazzo dei Priori. Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) was commissioned to redesign and enlarge Palazzo Vecchio, with a decorative scheme aimed at celebrating the sovereign and his government. The project included the arrangement of the Map Room, where Cosimo I, in a play of words on ‘Cosimo and Kosmos’, celebrated his own person through a grandiose decorative scheme reproducing on the walls of the room the pages of a famous and beloved book - the Cosmography of Ptolemy (2nd century), the quintessence of knowledge of the world. Conceived by Cosimo himself, the project was entrusted to Vasari, who employed the Olivetan monk Miniato Pitti (?-1566) as consultant in cosmography. The execution of the 53 geographic charts "from Ptolemy", with representations of both the ancient world and the new lands recently discovered, was commissioned of the cosmographer Egnazio Danti (1536-1586) and finished by his successor Stefano Buonsignori (?-1589).