Leave the Guns, Bring the Nolli

May 10, 2007 4:57 PM

The Nolli Plan. In 1748, Giambattista Nolli drew one of the most detailed and accurate maps ever created for the city of Rome. Improving on the Buffalini Plan of 1551 [interactive link to zoom], Nolli’s plan was drawn to an incredible precision, going as far as revealing public interior spaces in a stark figure-ground relationship. The Interactive Nolli Map allows you to overlap transparencies of the modern city to see how little has changed and how precise Nolli’s measurements were. Piranesi’s maps – however fanciful- were also inspired by Nolli’s achievements.
posted by yeti (8 comments total)

When in Rome, I prefer to navigate by the Severan Marble Plan.
posted by phooky at 5:03 PM on May 10, 2007 [1 favorite]

That interactive map is really quite cool. I like how when you compare the satellite view with the Nolli map by changing the transparency, you can see that with a really old city, 259 years just isn't enough to warrant changing the street layouts.
posted by quin at 5:09 PM on May 10, 2007

Nice post. This is making me want to go back to Rome so bad. Such a beautiful city. Certain times of day, when those big tolling cathedral bells start ringing simultaneously, and the light falls just so on those warm reddish and ochre buildings... damn.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:28 PM on May 10, 2007

I do love this sort of thing, thank you.
Now the plans are out there, when do we get the Lego reconstruction?
posted by Abiezer at 5:40 PM on May 10, 2007

What a great find! Thanks!
posted by piratebowling at 6:11 PM on May 10, 2007

Beautiful and mesmerizing, especially switching back and forth between Nolli and the satellite. Some of Mussolini's bigger sins are particularly evident that way -- big straight roads cutting right through the middle of Nolli's beautiful work.
posted by katemonster at 7:05 PM on May 10, 2007

Where's the 3D Google Earth version? Meh.

Seriously, nice links. I love old maps.
posted by slogger at 11:50 AM on May 11, 2007

Oh, that's good, many thanks
posted by IndigoJones at 10:10 AM on May 12, 2007