Digital Nolli. 3D representation (digital model) of Giambattista Nolli’s Map of Rome “La Nuova Topografia di Roma” (1748)

Authors

  • Lucio Valerio Barbera

Abstract

Giambattista Nolli’s Map of Rome – “La Nuova Topografia di Roma†– in its Large Size Edition (12 engraved plates, 1748) (fig. 01a) is universally recognized as the definitive urban plan of historical Rome at the height of its development after the fall of the Roman Empire. It accurately represents Papal Rome at the end of its splendid growth throughout the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the Baroque, almost exactly up to the period between Rococo and Neoclassicism, i.e at the edge of the Modern period. A major amputation has been inflicted by modernity on Nolli’s Rome: after the unification of Italy, the direct contact of the city with the river was erased. The three-dimensional digital reconstruction of Nolli’s Rome promises to be a long-lasting project, a truly ongoing research to be carried out over time: 1. A realization of the complete digital model of Nolli’s Rome within the imperial walls in 1:250  scale. Buildings will be represented in their true height and the real or realistic conformation of roofs, coverings, or vaults and domes. Two reference models will be used: the aforementioned model by the French Army (1849) and the plastic model of Imperial Rome in Emperor Constantine’s age, on display in the Museo della Civiltà Romana (Museum of Roman Civilization) in Rome (at EUR); 2. To experiment with it all scales of representation, all the way to the more finely detailed ones permitted by a study of the great historical ichnographic heritage and the direct study of the still existing and living parts of Nolli’s town.

References

Jessica Maier, Rome Measured and Imagined: Early Modern Maps of the Eternal City, University of Chicago Press 2015.

Ian Verstegen, Allan Ceen (eds), Giambattista Nolli and Rome. Mapping the City before and after the Pianta Grande, Studium Urbis, Rome 2014.

Antonino Saggio, Roma ininterrotta, In Ian Verstegen, Allan Ceen (eds), Giambattista Nolli and Rome. Mapping the City before and after the Pianta Grande, Studium Urbis, Rome 2014.

C.M. Travaglini – K. Lelo (eds), Roma nel Settecento. Immagini e realtà di una capitale attraverso la pianta di G.B. Nolli, Croma 2013.

Victor Plahte Tschudi, Plaster Empires. Italo Gismondi’s Model of Rome, “Journal of the Society of Architectural Historiansâ€, Vol. 71 No. 3, September 2012; (pp. 386-403).

James E. Packer, Italo Gismondi and Pierino Di Carlo: “Virtualizing†Imperial Rome for 20th-Century Italy, AJA July 2008 (112.3).

Allan Ceen, Rome 1748 Roma. La Pianta Grande di Roma di Gianbattitsta Nolli, Publisher J.H. Aronson, Highmount, New York, 1991.

Web sources

- 2d Digital Nolli: University of Oregon on the 2D digital interactive Nolli map; reference person: Jim Tice, Erik Steine: details available on (http://nolli.uoregon.edu/). Outcome: Martin Koppenhoefer: (http://nolli-app.com/index-it.html.).

- Aquae Urbis Romae. The Waters of the City of Rome: University of Virginia, reference person: Katharine Wentworth Rinne. The research is about a cartographic history of water infrastructure and urbanism in Rome the one (http://www3.iath.virginia.edu/waters/) funded by NEH Collaborative Grant (2005-2007).

For the French Maps of the Rome Siege of 1840: http://comitatogianicolo.it/2013/3209/3209

- For the French Models of 1840: https://www.napoleon.org/histoire-des-2-empires/iconographie/vue-densemble-du-plan-relief-du-siege-de-rome-realise-a-partir-des-releves-effectues-sur-le-terrain-par-les-officiers-du-genie-du-corps-doccupation-francais/

- For the Rome pictures and watercolors. https://www.romasparita.eu/foto-roma-sparita/81181/trastevere-4

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Published

2017-12-30

How to Cite

Barbera, L. V. (2017). Digital Nolli. 3D representation (digital model) of Giambattista Nolli’s Map of Rome “La Nuova Topografia di Roma” (1748). L’architettura Delle città  - The Journal of the Scientific Society Ludovico Quaroni, 8(11). Retrieved from http://architetturadellecitta.it/index.php/adc/article/view/184

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Section

L'Architettura delle città-The Journal of Scientific Society Ludovico Quaroni