Review: Imago Urbis: Giuseppe Vasi's Grand Tour of Rome; The Interactive Nolli Map Website; The Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae; and Architecture in the Classical Tradition

Abstract

Imago Urbis: Giuseppe Vasi's Grand Tour of Rome ; http://vasi.uoregon.edu/ The Interactive Nolli Map Website ; http://nolli.uoregon.edu/ The Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae ; http://speculum.lib.uchicago.edu/ Architecture in the Classical Tradition ; http://act.art.queensu.ca/homepage.php The survival and emendation of the classical tradition has fascinated scholars, architects, artists, and others for more than a thousand years. Quill pens, printing presses, cameras, and GPS receivers have all been called upon to record the fractured material remains of the past. Recently, web technology has joined this list of tools. The first three websites considered in this review examine how Rome was visited virtually in the 1500s and 1700s. The fourth website seeks to foster an understanding of the ideas that serve as the foundation for the classical tradition in architecture from Stonehenge to our own time. Created with a grant from the Getty Foundation, Imago Urbis: Giuseppe Vasi's Grand Tour of Rome contains the 238 plates that embellished Vasi's ten-volume Delle magnificenze di Roma antica e moderna (1747–61) (Figure 1). Vasi (1710–1782) spent his career engraving the buildings, piazze , fountains, and festivals that were the urban theater of Rome. This rich site abounds in well-organized, accessible, and useful material. Clicking on the section labeled Interactive takes visitors to the 1748 Nolli map of Rome, with which one can view all of the sites that Vasi recorded in and around the city. The station-points for all of the vedute are highlighted on the map in red. A lighter tone of red indicates the field of view, allowing viewers to understand the breadth of vision represented. Clicking on these highlighted areas brings up the relevant Vasi image and a detail of the Nolli plan. Moving a cursor over parts of the Vasi print or the Nolli detail highlights how a particular urban feature was represented (or ignored) by Vasi and Nolli. A concise text also elucidates the site and provides information on all of the features represented. The ability to compare Nolli's ichnographic rendering of the city to …