Perception and Communication of Urban Space: Observations on Fourteenth- and Fifteenth-Century Representations of Rome

The cartographic representation of Rome is as varied as its history; however there are several qualitatively significant discontinuities within an evolutionary process we can consider as linear. The research presented here focuses on a specific selection of fourteenth- and fifteenth-century maps of the city of Rome as a way to discuss not only one of these glaring discontinuities, but also several aspects linked to the perception and communication of the image of the city in the period preceding the more meticulous representations executed after the scientific revolution in the field of urban and territorial surveying. An analysis and comparison of these representations was performed using criteria that evolved during the research. It concentrated on three objectives: to produce observations about the perception of the city during that period; to draw attention to select contents in the maps; to discuss related communication strategies.