The Digital Piranesi

Topography of Rome

Nolli’s “New Topography of Rome” (1748) established standard rules of cartography for centuries. It was the first map to use white to indicate streets and ink to indicate buildings. Nolli personally measured, surveyed, and documented every street, monument, palace, church, and garden. Piranesi based many of his inventive maps on Nolli’s design, and he engraved this map’s framing vistas, which display modern architectural works: the Trevi Fountain, the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, and the piazza of St. Peter’s Basilica. The maps in this gallery imaginatively reconstruct ancient Rome, providing architectural blueprints of monuments such as the Colosseum, Pantheon, and the Forum, and they include references to additional maps, diagrams, and immersive views that permit viewers to experience first-hand the city’s history.

This page references: