Lanciani: Forma Urbis Romae

The Forma Urbis Romae by Rodolfo Lanciani is a detailed map of all the ancient ruins in Rome as of 1893-1901 when it was first published. The “Forma Urbis Romae” consists of 46 separate plates covering most of the central parts of Rome.

Rodolfo Lanciani was in charge of most of the excavations in Rome in the last decades of the 19th century and was the leading authority of his time on the archaeology of ancient Rome.

Obviously several parts of the maps are dated and no longer considered correct, but other parts retain their value and some parts show ruins no longer visible in to the normal visitor in Rome.

The maps are colour coded. The ancient parts are in black, the modern parts in red and the parts delineated in thin blue lines are planned changes. Much of what the modern visitor takes for granted in Rome was just on the drawing board or not even thought of in 1901.

Major parts of the 46 plates are present here, but not all the plates in their entirety. The list below gives the title given to each plate by Lanciani and the parts present here. Due to the size of the pages, many pages are scanned in four parts, denominated “lower left”, “lower right”, “upper left”, “upper right”. Otherwise the name of the monument is given.

Plate I – Piazza del Popolo
Plate II – Villa Borghese
Plate III – Porta Salaria
Plate IV – Via Nomentana
Plate V – Valle D’Inferno
Plate VI – Giardino Vaticano (north)
detail: Vatican Museums
Plate VII – Campus Neroniana
detail: Hadrian’s Mausoleum (part)
Plate VIII – Campus Martius (north)
details: Augustus’ Mausoleum, Ara Pacis (part)
Plate IX – Horti Sallustiani
Plate X – Terme Diocletianae
detail: Baths of Diocletian (part)
Plate XI – Castro Preatorio
Plate XII – Giardino Vaticano (west)
Plate XIII – San Pietro (south)
detail: Saint Peters
Plate XIV – Pons Neronianus
detail: Hadrian’s Mausoleum (part)
Plate XV – Pantheon
almost everything: lower left, lower right, upper right
Plate XVI – Quirinalis
almost everything: lower left, lower right, upper right
Plate XVII – Viminalis
detail: Baths of Diocletian (part)
Plate XVIII – Le Mura
Plate XIX – Valle dei Fornaci
Plate XX – Lungaretta
detail: Villa of Agrippa
Plate XXI – Thermae Agrippae
everything: lower left, lower right, upper left, upper right
Plate XXII – Fori Imperiali
everything: lower left, lower right, upper left, upper right
Plate XXIII – Cispius
everything: lower left, lower right, upper left, upper right
Plate XXIV – Esquilinus
everything: lower left, lower right, upper left, upper right
Plate XXV – Via Collatina
Plate XXVI – Via Aurelia
Plate XXVII – Ianiculum
detail: Trastevere
Plate XXVIII – Isola Tiberina
everything: lower left, lower right, upper left, upper right
Plate XXIX – Forum Romanum
everything: lower left, lower right, upper left, upper right
Plate XXX – Thermae Traiani
everything: lower left, lower right, upper left, upper right
Plate XXXI – Aqua Marcia
Plate XXXII – Porta Maggiore
details: lower left, upper right
Plate XXXIII – Villa Sciarra
details: lower right, upper right
Plate XXXIV – Transtiberim (south)
Plate XXXV – Circus Maximus
everything: lower left, lower right, upper left, upper right
Plate XXXVI – Caelius
detail: upper left
Plate XXXVII – Porta Asinaria
detail: The Lateran
Plate XXXVIII – Acqua Marrana
Plate XXXIX – Porta Portuensis
Plate XL – Marmorata
Plate XLI – Thermae Antonianae
everything: lower left, lower right, upper left, upper right, Thermae Antonianae
Plate XLII – Porta Metronia
details: lower left, upper left (Thermae Antonianae)
Plate XLIII – Via Publica Campana
Plate XLIV – Testaccio
detail: Porta Ostiense and Pyramid
Plate XLV – Porta Ostiensis
Plate XLVI – Porta San Sebastiano
detail: Via Appia

4 Comments

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Stavros Macrakis says:

The links in the text section above are incorrect.

For example, “Pantheon Lower Left” should presumably link to
https://sights.seindal.dk/other-images-sources/lanciani-forma-urbis-romae/15-ll-campus-martius/, but in fact it links to https://sights.seindal.dk/photo/9920, which does not exist.

6 June 2020 — 20:27

- Comment by post author
  
  René Seindal says:
  
  Thanks a million for your comment.
  The links should work now. I had made a mistake in the migration of the old site to WordPress.
  
  28 June 2020 — 22:14
  
francesca Ambroselli says:

Ma a che epoca si riferiscono le mappe di Lanciani? Età romana imperiale o repubblicana?

21 June 2022 — 19:31

Dale Wunderlich says:

I have now solved a mystery that has bugged me for 24 years… where does the drain lead to, from the center of the pantheon? Well, because you have shared these good resolution maps, I now know.
Thank You!

1 December 2022 — 02:56