The Eternal City

"The Ruins Lesson makes one point above all: there was no single dominant way of observing ancient ruins and portraying what remained. Jessica Maiers The Eternal City: A History of Rome in Maps provides a rich complementary account. . . . For centuries, as she shows, mapmakers and miniaturists, antiquarians and cartographers set out to do exactly what he thought impossible: to represent at least in part not only the city of Rome, but some of the ways in which it had changed over time." * London Review of Books * No other city has maintained the story of its past in its present quite like Rome, creating an intentional palimpsest through incessant acts of preservation, reconstruction, and cartographic visualization. Maiers lively, imaginatively organized, and accessible book displays how centuries of maps not only tell stories about the citys physical development but also show how Romes narratives of itselfconflating eras, resituating buildings, compressing waterwaysunfurled in self-mapping from antiquity to the Metro. * Evelyn Lincoln, Brown University * "Jessica Maiers The Eternal City: A History of Rome in Maps is a luxurious volume, elegantly and enthusiastically written, and richly illustrated with 140 well-curated color images of artwork, including maps of Rome across the ages. Maiers primary aim is to explore the history of Rome through its cartography, and she contextualizes the maps within their historical, socio-cultural, religious, and political backdrops. . . . her volume invites the reader on an imaginary journey through the complex topographical, monumental, and historical layers of the Eternal City." * The Portolan * "Beautifully produced." * The Classical Review * The history of Rome comes to life in this erudite, beautifully written book. Organized chronologically from Romes early beginnings to the present, this richly detailed history of Rome is focused through the lens of maps and cartographic images. Maier has written a fascinating account for both armchair and actual travelers. The Eternal City also has much to offer to seasoned scholars who will appreciate its coherent and fluid synthesis. * Pamela O. Long, author of Engineering the Eternal City * The Eternal City offers the reader a vivid panorama of Romes changing form and image over the course of more than two millennia. A rich selection of city plans and views reveals crucial shifts in representational strategies, function, and symbolic intent. The dynamic tension between Romes complex, three-dimensional urban reality and the citys image as projected by successive generations of artists and cartographers is certain to engage a wide audience. * John Pinto, emeritus, Princeton University * "The Eternal City is a brilliant history of Rome, focusing on how we have responded to and represented this ever-changing city. Digging down into both Rome's history and our own desires for this city, Maier has written a fascinating book that has changed the way I consider maps and history." * A Universe in Words blog * "Each chapter combines history, urban development, and the history of mapping to assess in each period how the city changed and how contemporaries represented itdemonstrating how Rome has been constantly reimagined, reconstructed, and represented over the course of the past three millennia, both on the ground and on paper (or other media)... Highly Recommended." * Choice * "Done very well, both in the selection and discussion of visual images and in [Maier's] considerate and humane prose style. A delight of a book." * New York Military Affairs Symposium Review *

Jessica Maier is associate professor of art history at Mount Holyoke College. She is the author of Rome Measured and Imagined: Early Modern Maps of the Eternal City, also published by University of Chicago Press.

Introduction: Rome as Idea and Reality Further Reading Chapter One: Rome Takes Shape Rome before Rome A Walled City Urban Districting Further Reading Chapter Two: Rome of the Caesars Destination Rome An Incomplete Puzzle Making Sense of the Shattered Past Filling in the Gaps A Model City Further Reading Chapter Three: Rome of the Popes Sacred Buildings and Secular Symbols The Medieval Cityscape Pathos and Wonder Further Reading Chapter Four: Rome Reborn A City Ready for Its Close-Up The City Seen through a Wide-Angle Lens The City Measured A Panoramic View of Urban Revitalization Further Reading Chapter Five: Rome of the Scholars Archaeology in Its Infancy An Ancient Roman Theme Park A Ghostly Fantasy Further Reading Chapter Six: Rome of the Saints and Pilgrims The Way of the Faithful Scenes from a Pilgrimage A Pilgrimage Map for the Modern Era Further Reading Chapter Seven: Rome of the Grand Tourists Rome as Theater The Origins of the Tourist Plan Rome Surveyed A Panoramic Vision Further Reading Chapter Eight: Rome of the Mass Tourists The Guidebook Impresarios Rome Rome for a Rather Important Woman Traveler Rome in Your Pocket Rome for Italian Tourists Further Reading Chapter Nine: Rome Enters the Modern Age 2,500 Years in, a Master Plan for Rome When Trams Ruled Rome An Olympic City, and a New Beginning Further Reading Chapter Ten: Rome Past, Present, and Future Rapid Transit for a Rapidly Changing City A Master Plan for the Third Millennium: (Un)sustainable Rome Further Reading Acknowledgments Index