This path was created by Constance Caddell. The last update was by Jeanne Britton.

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The Digital Piranesi

Cartography

Although he is known primarily for his illustrations of Roman ruins, Piranesi also produced many striking and innovative maps of Rome.

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This map, “Pianta di Roma e del Campo Marzio,” serves as something of an advertisement to Piranesi’s other works. But it also serves as something like a complicated table of contents for distinct publications. With numbered items in the central map, Piranesi refers viewers to the surrounding index, which includes over four hundred buildings and monuments. From this index, he then directs viewers to his other works, instructing them, often with abbreviated directions, such as “see Antichita romane” (“V. Aa. Re.” [Vedi Antichita Romane”]) or “see Views of Rome” (V. Ve. Ra. [Vedi Vedute di Roma]). Piranesi’s system of references can be quite complex—certain buildings, such as the Pantheon, are glossed in the index with short essays, and a few, such as Castel Sant’Angelo and Saint Mary of the Angels point to a series of images. Animating these varied printed references, which guide viewers both within one image and across multiple volumes of Piranesi’s works, is the goal of this hyperlinked map.