Plattegrond van de stad Rome 1676

Curator: Wow, it's incredibly intricate. It feels like looking into a city's soul laid bare on paper. It is overwhelming. Editor: Indeed. We're looking at Giovanni Battista Falda's "Plattegrond van de stad Rome," created in 1676. It is currently held at the Rijksmuseum, an engraving, a marvel of detail, showing a comprehensive map of Rome. Curator: A map… but so much more. The baroque flourishes around the edges—it’s almost as if the city is being presented as a precious jewel. All that tiny lettering, must have been painstaking. Editor: The detail speaks to Rome’s importance as both a political and religious center. Maps like this weren’t just about navigation, they were about power and control. Mapping a city was an act of claiming it. Who the consumer was of maps such as this one in particular is an even deeper rabbit hole I would happily go down. Curator: And that explains the somewhat decorative display, it isn't trying to make you actually find places; it is flaunting how many important buildings and districts Rome houses, by cramming it all on there in writing, with a cartouche around it, like jewelry. It is as a document of pride, it seems. Editor: Precisely. Consider how this print might have been displayed: perhaps in the study of a wealthy merchant or the office of a church official. Owning this image signified their connection to Rome's grandeur and its influence. It puts power relations in perspective for the Rome of its time, even. Curator: It really gets you thinking, about who got to be *on* the map, whose stories were considered worth immortalizing like this. The artist made choices in representing Rome, after all. The way those sailboats at the top give context to all of it as being this very specific and grand part of the world... Falda did not leave anything to chance in this etching. Editor: A print like this serves as a powerful reminder of how images have always shaped our understanding of cities, and indeed the world. Curator: Looking at it has certainly made me see maps—and Rome itself—in a whole new light.