Plan of the existing factories in the Villa Adriana, with a dedication to St. M Stanislaus Augustus, King of Poland 

Here, Giovanni Battista Piranesi presents a detailed etching dedicated to King Stanislaus Augustus, illustrating the layout of Hadrian's Villa. Notice the geometric precision that maps the ruins, but also the compass rose, a symbol deeply embedded in the quest for orientation and understanding, both literal and metaphorical. The compass, throughout history, has been more than a navigational tool; it is a cultural artifact echoing the human desire to chart the unknown. We see its antecedents in ancient cosmological diagrams—wheels of fortune, mandalas. In Piranesi’s rendering, it resurfaces amidst the ruins, a poignant juxtaposition of the rational and the romantic. It prompts us to consider how we, like those before us, continually seek direction amidst the fragments of the past, and how the past becomes a landscape through which we navigate our present. The compass is not just about finding our way, it’s about finding meaning in the vast, often disorienting, currents of time.