Science Art: Pianta di Roma, by Giovanni Battista Piranesi, 1758.

Scientific illustration of ancient Rome in the form of a map by Piranesi.
Scientific illustration of ancient Rome in the form of a map by Piranesi.

It’s a map. An old map of an even older city. This is Piranesi’s map of ancient Rome (“and Forma Urbis”) from Le Antichità Romane, a survey of Roman antiquities, including the shape of the city itself in ancient times, and the shapes of bits of the buildings that made up the city. Maybe you could see this etching in person at The Met, but it’s interesting enough to look at here, a digital reproduction of a paper reproduction of Piranesi’s etched-metal reproduction of the grandeur that was Rome.
So much to do there! So much to see! Such as it was….