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Forma Urbis Romae, ancient map of Rome, to be put on display


guy

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The Severan marble map of Rome known as the Forma Urbis Romae will finally be on display (see video below):

 

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The Forma Urbis Romae, or map of the city of Rome, was a massive plan of the layout of the city under the emperor Septimius Severus (r. A.D. 193–211). Although only a small portion of the plan survives, scholars are relatively certain it illustrated most of the city. 

 

Here is a previous discussion involving this wonderful ancient relic:

 


 

https://www.archaeology.org/issues/337-1905/features/7547-maps-rome-forma-urbis-romae#:~:text=FOUND%3A Rome%2C Italy.,illustrated most of the city.

 

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ancient-art-civilizations/roman/middle-empire/a/severan-marble-plan-forma-urbis-romae

 

 

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Edited by guy
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Besides the "map" superimposed on a 300 year old map of Rome, they are refurbishing it's whole dilapidated historic property including walkable grounds with archeo fragments. Hopefully this will extend the foot traffic on kind of the "wrong" shadeless desolate side of the coliseum, and bridge to onward attractions like Baths of Caracalla / St John Lateran / Via Appia.

I love walking the continuous fabric of a city instead of being abruptly plunked at spots, although the shade of a few more umbrella pines there would help. Maybe can't dig a hole for a root ball without unearthing a zeroth-century vomitorium? Anyway, even Ostia Appia seems closer using a nearby train station. https://www.finestresullarte.info/en/archaeology/rome-caelian-archaeological-park-opens-to-the-public-with-new-forma-urbis-museum

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The project is part of a broader transformation of the Caelian Hill and the entire Monumental Archaeological Center, starting with a number of important interventions: consolidation and rehabilitation work on the former Municipal Antiquarium will begin shortly, which will put an end to the building’s almost century-long neglect. In addition, the green area of the Caelian will be upgraded in vegetation, paths, overlooks toward the Palatine and connections with the Colosseum area, through a project by the Department of Environmental Protection. Finally, the New Archaeological Walkway, along Via di San Gregorio, will connect the Caelian Park with the Monumental Archaeological Center.

May be some risk to the proliferation of niche museums in Rome, showing this new restoration and that. Often they are relatively expensive and you can see everything twice in 20 or 30 minutes. Then on to the next 5 niche mu$eum$ that day, some of which require inflexible appointments and weren't what you expected. They tend to have low attendance and are hard to staff. A normal medium or giant museum has diversity so a few disappointments are balanced by unexpected things that ring your bell. I knocked a ton of these small museums off on a "free museum" week they have around April, and got quite a perspective.

Edited by caesar novus
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How certain are they that this is a wall hanging?...

It's one thing to have a large map of streets or geographical features hanging on a wall-- Cf--  all the movies we've seen with police headquarters or war command central plotting out movements of criminals or armies-- but it's quite another to have a  very large (60 x 48 ft) map with architectural details as small as placement of pillars, doorways and even stair cases, and then place it on a wall where it would be difficult to see those details...

...In the artist's rendition, the map is drawn to scale matched to the height of the two men in the center of the picture--- the bottom of the map would be 10 ft or more off the floor. Details smaller than about a golf ball would be virtually invisible to a naked eye....Why do it?...Maybe the original was actually placed on the floor? 

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10 hours ago, guidoLaMoto said:

Maybe the original was actually placed on the floor? 

Stanford has the 1000+ fragments crisply digitized even in 3d, so maybe you can look for signs of sandal abrasion vs vertical weathering: http://formaurbis.stanford.edu/ They also show 87 lost fragments from Renaissance drawings of them! Furthermore Stanford has a project that maps transport networks throughout Roman empire: https://orbis.stanford.edu/

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Edited by caesar novus
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OK, lack of erosion from foot traffic may speak against a floor display, or it could just mean it was placed in an area of sparse traffic, or for a short time...Note that it's now on display on the floor, so tourists can actually see it-.

Displayed on a wall, it would have required a room with at least a five story high ceiling, 6 if displayed as in the artist's rendition....

What makes sense?

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I thought until recently it was affixed to an external brick wall, but that was probably from a Mussolini era re-imagining. Whether horizontal or vertical, it could have had elevated viewing platforms, like for Trajan's Column or a mosaic floor in Anacapri:

trajans_column_dedication.jpeg

 

interior-of-the-saint-michael-church-in-

Edited by caesar novus
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Very interesting. The fact that none of the fragments were curved, however, makes me think a column was unlikely.

On 1/15/2024 at 8:43 AM, caesar novus said:

I thought until recently it was affixed to an external brick wall, but that was probably from a Mussolini era re-imagining. Whether horizontal or vertical, it could have had elevated viewing platforms, like for Trajan's Column or a mosaic floor in Anacapri:

trajans_column_dedication.jpeg

Edited by guy
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3 hours ago, guy said:

The fact that none of the fragments were curved, however, makes me think a column was unlikely.

Oh, I just meant the principle of an elevated viewpoint to any tall vertical (or horizontal) surface . Actually that column is supposed to be viewed as almost a wall. Scholars say you don't follow the spiral but view narrative from the bottom to top from 2 nearly opposed sides. Maybe that is why I found the unraveled spiral casts at the EUR museum unsatisfying.

Anyway new answers and questions from:

 

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