Topographical Map of Ancient Rome

Nicolaus Beatrizet

National Gallery of Art

Printed with black ink on white paper, this map shows a bird’s-eye views of a river winding through a town surrounded by empty fields and hills, all encased in city walls. The buildings and fields are spaced over several hills, many of which are labeled in Latin in all capital letters. The hills are finely crosshatched to suggest depth, and the buildings are drawn roughly in perspective, as if looking across the city from a high vantage point. Near the center of the engraving, densely packed buildings are separated by thin gaps to create irregular city blocks. The crowded blocks give way to open space and hills dotted with buildings, steeples, and ruins. Fragments of free-standing rows of arches in the fields to the south are the remains of aqueducts. The city wall is punctuated by arched openings framed by abutments that project above the top of the walls. The river winds from the top left corner of the paper to the center of the right edge, intersecting with the city walls in two places. Dozens of hills, features, landmarks, and buildings are labeled, including the round, domed “PANTEON” in the middle of the town, “CAPITOLINVS” a few blocks to our left, and “PALANTINVS” to our left of center. Near the upper right corner of the paper, several building-lined streets lead up to a hill labeled “VATICANVS.” Beyond the city walls the page is almost entirely blank. The page is folded vertically up the center. In the lower right corner, an inscription in a tablet-like cartouche reads, “RECENS RVRSVS POST OMNES OMNIVM DES CRIPTION. VRB, ROMAE TOPOGRAPHIA. CVM VALLIS. FOSSIS AGGRISVS CAETERISQ. QVAE AD HOSTI VM IMPEDIEND. IRRVPTION. PER VNIVERSVM VRB.AMBITVM INTRA EXTRAQ. MOEN. PVB LIC. IMPEN. FIERI CVRAVIT PAVL. IIII. PONT. MAX. DVM BELLO PARTHENOP. PREMERETVR. FORMIS ANTON.LAFRE RIL. SEQVAN. DILIGENTISS. EXPRESS. AN. D. LVII. CON GRA ET PREVILEGIO.” A thin, line border frames the map near the edge of the paper.