Introduction

Maps have been the subject of study by historians, art historians, cartographers, and

philosophers: they provide the means to analyse the marks a culture has left on the representation of

its territory and how it has mutated over time. 1 One of the most represented cities in maps was

Rome, given its historical, symbolical and religious importance. Picturae of Rome were often

included at the end of geographical manuscripts as additional textual appendices. 2 In the fifteenth

century, a collective impetus for antiquity resulted in the diffusion of new scientific studies about

the city’s foundation and its past, leading “to a change in the imagery” of Rome.3 Maps summarised

these transformations, serving as visual supports in which this new approach was conceptualised.

However, only during the sixteenth century, when an unprecedented diffusion of antiquarian

treatises occurred, did maps become disconnected from texts by being published as independent

images.

In recent years, scholars have developed a new interest in maps, trying to recover a

comprehensive representation of Rome by drawing from different fields: print culture, system of

competition among workshops, conditions of production, and patronage. However, few attempts

have been made to relate the evolution of maps to writing production. 4 This dissertation aims to fill

this gap by discussing the aesthetic transformation of the maps of ancient Rome from supporting

illustrations to self-sufficient images by tracing their historical progress in relation to written texts

over time.

1
. John Brian Harley, ‘The Map and the Development of the History of Cartography’ in The Histoy of Cartography, 3 vols., vol.1,
Cartography in prehistoric, ancient and medieval Europe and the Mediterranean, ed. John Brian Harley and David Woodraw,
(Chicago-London: The University of Chicago press, 1987),1-2.
2
. The most copied manuscripts were those of Claudio Tolomeo’s Geographia. See Darrell Rohl, ‘Chorography: History, Theory
and Potential for Archaeological Research’ in TRAC 2011 (Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2012), 20,
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320362756_Chorography_History_Theory_and_Potential_for_Archaeological_Research.
3
. Roberto Weiss, The Renaissance Discovery of Classical Antiquity (Oxford: Blackwell, 1969),.
4
. Tanja Michalsky has emphasised the connection between images and texts, limiting it to the study of the map of Rome by
Paolinus Venetus in Tanja Michalsky, ‘Grata pictura and mapa duplex: Paolino Minorita’s Late Medieval Map of Rome as an
Epistemological Instrument of an Historiographer’ in Convivium 2, no. 1 (2015): 52. Gennaro Tallini has developed an extensive
study about antiquarianism, despite marginally focusing on maps: Gennaro Tallini, Roma restaurata: il modello delle antichità di
Roma ne Cinquecento, uso, idealizzazione e disincanto (Rome: Stamen, 2018); Gennaro Tallini, “Nuove coordinate geografiche per
Giovanni Tarcagnota da Gaeta (1508-1566)” in Rivista di letteratura italiana 42, no. 1 (Accademia Editoriale, 2013); Gennaro
Tallini, Lucio Fauno (Giovanni Tarcagnota): Il compendio di Roma antica (Florence: Franco Cesati Editore, 2014), see in particular
the introduction.
 This study is organised into two sections. The first chapter will delve into the spatial

imagery of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Through case studies, it will examine the

representation of ancient Rome, showing how maps evolved from narrative instruments into

convincing autonomous images: the first one by the Franciscan friar Paolino Venetus will display

the conceptual, literary, and visual connection between maps and manuscripts; following an

examination of the historical context surrounding the studies on antiquity, the case of Pietro del

Massaio’s view of Rome will be presented as one of the first attempts to represent the city’s spatial

organisation.

The second section will explore the impact of antiquarianism on sixteenth-century maps and

their evolution as images by analysing three specimens. Fabio Calvo’s Simulachrum (1527) will be

discussed as an example of a fictional rendition of the city through eras. Then, the new status that

maps gained with Bartolomeo Marliani will be addressed by analysing his work, the Romae Urbae

topographia (1534), as the core of the argument. The impact of Marliani’s map will be then

considered through the lens of the antiquarian debate, and the pivotal role played by the scholar

Pirro Ligorio. The consequences of this discussion will be interpreted through Ligorio’s maps of

1552 and 1553, employed as polemical instruments. Finally, the map of 1561 by Ligorio will

provide the conclusion of this study and will be used to illustrate the evolution of maps as published

images to be consumed independently.