Forma Urbis Romae

The Forma Urbis Romae a.k.a. "Severan Marble Plan", is a massive map of ancient Rome carved out of marble. It originally measured 18 m (60 ft) wide by 13 m (45 ft) high. The plan was created for the emperor Septimius Severus, between 203 and 211 and mounted on the wall of the Temple of Peace.

Created at a scale of 1 to 240, it was detailed enough to show the floor plans of every temple, bath, and insula in Rome. The boundaries of the plan were decided based on the available space on the marble, instead of by geographical or political borders as modern maps usually are.

The plan was gradually destroyed during medieval times, with the stones being used as building materials or for making lime.

About 15% of the plan has survived, in the form of 1,186 fragments.

Projects

Piecing together the surviving fragments of the plan is an activity that has engrossed scholars for centuries. Renaissance scholars managed to pair 250 of the pieces, usually by recognizing famous landmarks such as the Colosseum and the Circus Maximus.

Recently, however, a project at Stanford University is digitizing the fragments and using computer algorithms in an attempt to pair more. As of March 2004, the project has digitized approximately 800 of the pieces, and has found possible matches between 40 of those.

Reference

• Henric Jordan Forma Urbis Romae. Regionum XIIII (Berlin, 1874)
• Carettoni, Gianfilippo; Colini, Antonio; Cozza, Lucos; and Gatti, Guglielmo, eds. La pianta marmorea di Roma antica. Forma urbis Romae (Rome, 1960)

External link

• Stanford Digital Forma Urbis Romae Project