LIBRO

Raphael da Urbino: archeologo, urbanista e cartografo

di Maria Elisa Garcia Barraco

In order to preserve what was left of ancient Rome, and reconstruct its lost monuments, Raphael, who was in charge of Roman antiquities under Leo X, wrote the pope about the need for a topographical map of Rome from the Age of Kings through the Empire. Raphael completed a series of drawings (now lost) before his premature death in 1520, however his comments and plans were carefully recorded by his collaborator, the antiquarian Marco Fabio Calvo, who died in 1527 during the Sack of Rome. That year, his "Antiquae urbis Romae cum regionibus simulachrum," was issued--the first topographical map of ancient Rome, which stemmed from the project he undertook with Raphael and Andrea Fulvio, another collaborator.