AIA Joukowsky Lecture: The Magnificent Peutinger Map: Roman Cartography at its Most Creative

The Peutinger Map is an intinerarium, an ancient Roman road map in the form of a listing of cities, towns, and other stops, showing the distances between them; it is the only known surviving map showing the cursus publicus, or Roman roads. The version that we have today is a 13th century medieval copy of an original that was last revised around 400 A.D. For the Romans such a map was much more than simply a factual record; it was a valuable document that could promote and reinforce values such as pride in conquest and entitlement to world-rule that were integral to maintaining public support. Classical scholars have become more attuned to the importance of cartographic representations and the Roman worldview, and Professor Richard Talbert applies this new way of thinking to the Peutinger Map and the c.210 A.D. Severan Marble Plan of Rome in his lecture The Magnificent Peutinger Map: Roman Cartography at its Most Creative. Identifying the Peutinger Map as a pivotal moment in Western cartography, he explores its long-term cultural impact and influence on Christian mapmaking throughout the Renaissance.

Professor Richard Talbert completed his undergraduate studies at The Kings School in Canterbury and received his Ph.D. from Corpus Christi College at Cambridge University. His work currently focuses on Greek and Roman spatial perceptions and historical cartography, and he is the author of numerous volumes on the Roman Empire, including his 2010 Rome’s World: The Peutinger Map Reconsidered (Cambridge University Press). Professor Talbert has held a Guggenheim Fellowship, an American Council of Learned Societies Senior Fellowship, and the inaugural Goheen Fellowship at the National Humanities Center, 2000-2001. He received a Doctorate of Letters from Cambridge University in 2003, and in 2005 he was elected a Corresponding Member of the German Archaeological Institute. In 2007 he was awarded a Harley Research Fellowship in the History of Cartography for his work in London.

There will be a reception folowing the event.

To RSVP, please email isaw@nyu.edu.