Giovanni Maggi and Paul Maupin’s Map of Rome (PL 2990)

Giovanni Maggi and Paul Maupin’s woodcut map of Rome (‘Disegno nuovo di Roma moderna con un breve compenio delle sue Antichita’) in the Pepys Library is one of only two known examples in the world, the other being at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. The map was published in 1625 and provides a fascinating depiction of 17^th Century Italy. In addition to it being a contemporary street plan of Rome, it records many sites of classical Rome which have now vanished.

A leaf from the Pepys Library Map of Rome (PL 2990)

Giovanni Maggi (1566-c.1618) was a talented draughtsman who recorded the city in plano, unmatched in scale or detail in comparison to other contemporary plans . It is thought that Paul Maupin, a French stationer living in Rome, acquired Maggi’s work after his death. Maupin then produced woodblocks for the map’s publication. The map is cut into 48 sheets and, when assembled, it measures over 2×4 metres. Maupin dedicated the map to Prince Wladslaw of Poland, who was visiting Pope Urban VIII at the time of the map’s publication.

We are pleased to announce that the entire map is to be digitised, initially available for researchers at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA), National Gallery of Art, United States, for their project entitled ‘The History of the Accademia di San Luca, c. 1590–1635: Documents from the Archivio di Stato di Roma’. In due course, the map will be available online to a wider audience on the project’s website.

By Catherine Sutherland

Deputy Librarian, Pepys Library and Special Collections

References

Tyacke, Sarah : The Map of Rome, 1625, Paul Maupin: A Companion to the Facsimile Reproduced from the Original in the Pepys Library. London: Nottingham Court Press, 1982.