• Ichnographia and Scenographia, Campo Marzio dell’antica Roma. Rome, 1762

Curatorial Notes:
  • One of Piranesi’s most famous prints, the Ichnographia is a map of the Campo Marzio, the ancient district used as a military training ground. Printed from six plates, today the map is most often found framed on walls. Yet Piranesi published it as part of a large volume of other prints showing views of structures found there. Latin and Italian texts discuss Piranesi’s explorations of the surviving ruins, analyses of classical sources, and discussions of numismatic and other forms of historical evidence. Most notably, Piranesi used fragments from the Forma Urbis Romae, the third-century map of Rome carved on stone, to reconstruct parts of the city plan. Piranesi displays his own map as if it, too, has been carved in stone, and mounted to a wall with metal clamps. The map is also part fantasy: Piranesi designed as much of the ancient city as he reconstructed from evidence.
Additional notes:
  • New Acquisition. The Scenographia, a print from the Campo Marzio volume, is a view of the area that Piranesi reconstructed in his spectacular fold-out map, the Ichnographia. In the scene of the ancient field of Mars, the Tiber River winds past a few buildings set into the landscape. A tableau of inscribed stone fragments in the foreground references the historical materials that Piranesi used in his topographical research, including both texts and ruins. To the left and right, indexes connect the depicted monuments to other prints and textual discussions in the book.
Date:
  • 1762
Format:
  • Book
Type:
  • Pictorial works
Extent:
  • [12], 69, [1], xii, xvii, [1] p., [43] leaves of plates : ill. (engravings) ; 62 cm. (fol.)
Creator:
Publisher:
  • Romae : [s.n.] : Veneunt apud auctorem in aedibus Comitis Thomati ..., 1762.
Language:
  • Latin
  • Italian
Subject:
  • Campo Marzio (Rome, Italy)—Antiquities—Pictorial works
  • Rome (Italy)—Antiquities—Pictorial works
  • Italy—Antiquities—Pictorial works
Author:
  • Piranesi, Giovanni Battista, 1720-1778
Provenance:
  • Princeton copy 2: Bookplate of Elia. Ink inscription by Giovanni Battista Petrucci Piancastelli.
Alternative:
  • Campo Marzio dell'antica Roma
  • Campvs Martivs antiqvae vrbis
  • Campus Martius antiquae urbis
Binding note:
  • Princeton copy 1: Plain boards.
  • Princeton copy 2: Vellum, with leather spine label.
References:
  • F. Vinton, Subject-catalogue of the Library of College of New Jersey, (1884), p. 622, col. 1, shelf mark "Cabinet 3.30.1"
Description:
  • Text in Italian and Latin, on facing pages.
  • Plates numbered I-XLVIII. Plate II folded, plates V-X joined together to form one large folded plate, plates XXI-XXXII folded.
  • Princeton copy 1: Imperfect: lacking plates V-X. Accession no. 62781 stamped on second plate.
Credit line:
  • Marquand Library of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University Library and Rare Books, Department of Special Collections, Princeton University Library
View in catalog:
Identifier:
  • ark:/88435/8g84mw67t