Index of the Fragments of the Marble Plan of Ancient Rome - Giovanni Battista Piranesi

A detailed index plate from Giovanni Battista Piranesi's 1756 work, Le Antichità Romane, documenting the fragments of the ancient marble map of Rome.

This print is a plate from Giovanni Battista Piranesi's monumental work, Le Antichità Romane, published in 1756. It functions as an index for the fragments of the Forma Urbis Romae, the ancient marble map of Rome created during the reign of Septimius Severus. Piranesi, an Italian architect and etcher, dedicated much of his career to the documentation of Roman ruins. His approach combined rigorous archaeological observation with a precise, disciplined graphic style.

The composition is purely typographic, organised into clear columns that list various ancient structures and their corresponding locations. The text is presented in Latin and Italian, providing a scholarly guide for the reader to navigate the complex archaeological data presented in the accompanying plates. The layout reflects the orderly, systematic nature of eighteenth-century antiquarian research. The print demonstrates the clarity of Piranesi's etching technique, even when applied to text rather than his more famous architectural vistas.

By including this index, Piranesi allowed his audience to cross-reference the fragmented evidence of the marble plan with existing structures and historical records. The work serves as a record of the state of archaeological knowledge in the mid-eighteenth century. It is a piece of historical documentation that captures the intellectual rigour of the period. The print is characterised by its clean lines and structured arrangement, typical of the high standards of production found in Piranesi's larger volumes. It is an essential item for those interested in the history of cartography, classical archaeology, or the development of printmaking techniques in Europe.