Plan of Rome 1748

Conservation was generously funded by the Blackman-Helseth Foundation and Larry Oakey. Giovanni Battista Nolli's monumental New Plan of Rome is a landmark in cartography. The plan far outstripped its predecessors in terms of accuracy and detail. Rather than depicting a bird’s-eye view or artistic rendering of the city, Nolli, an engineer and architect, carefully executed an orthogonal map (a measured ground plan) based on over a decade of surveying the city. He had new measuring devices and a large team of assistants and surveyors at his disposal, not to mention papal support, which allowed him access to measure private properties as well as public. He did not rely on earlier models, as was the usual practice. Instead, he and his team started from scratch, thus the title of the work "Nuova pianta di Roma." This safeguarded their map from repeating errors. The scale of the project was immense—some 1,300 building are indexed on the map—and no detail was overlooked—every building measured, every road and fountain described. Nolli employed three engravers to execute the massive work, which is printed from twelve copper plates. The painter Stefano Pozzi designed the architectural vignettes and allegories in the foreground representing ancient Rome and modern Rome.