Theater that Was Rome

A digital collection of views and maps from Rome of the 16th-18th c. and a website with further information about individual prints in a selection of the books.

This digital collection features a selection of works from the extraordinary collection of Vincent J. Buonanno ’66, focused on views and maps of the Eternal City from the 16th-18th centuries. Festival prints and architectural treatises from the collection of the John Hay Library are also included.

In addition, Evie Lincoln has been studying and teaching about engraving and early modern Rome with this digital collection of illustrated books. Her primary interest is in the books themselves: how the authors, engravers and publishers presented the information about Rome to their audience. The digital presentation of these rare and expensive books allows readers to study not only the images, but also the text and context of the books.

STG has built a website around the library resource that contains enhanced metadata about individual pages and illustrations in the books. Together with the CDI, they developed detailed MODS records and assembled them into book objects. They also experimented with different ways of navigating through books and page images in the digital repository.

Theater that was Rome is a project of History of Art and Architecture

Contributors to this project include Clifford Wulfman (STG), Elli Mylonas (CDS), Andrew Ashton (CDS), Evie Lincoln (Faculty lead)