# Nuova pianta di Roma data in luce da Giambattista Nolli l’anno MDCCXLVII, known as La Pianta Grande di Roma

**Giovanni Battista Nolli** (Italian, 1701–1756)  
1748  
etching and engraving  
Sheet: 43.4 x 68.9 cm (17 1/16 x 27 1/8 in.)

Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art, 2020.276.10. [The museum's record](https://clevelandart.org/art/2020.276.10).

## About this work

The monumental Pianta Grande di Roma, or Large Plan of Rome, which measures about 5 x 7 feet when its twelve plates are assembled, is a landmark in both cartography and printmaking. The map is considered the first scientific rendering of Rome, establishing new standards of accuracy and thoroughness when it was published in 1748. Devised by the Lombard architect and surveyor Giovanni Battista Nolli (Italian, 1701-56), the creation of the map required over ten years of surveying the city carried out by Nolli and a team of assistants with the help of new measuring devices. In Nolli’s “ichnographic” (also called “ground”) plan, architectural features and the urban infrastructure are reduced to a single horizontal slice, a minutely detailed footprint that conveys dimensions, proportions, and orientations to scale with the utmost clarity.

_Text from the Cleveland Museum of Art._

Giovanni Battista Nolli made this in 1748, aged 47. It is now at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

### How it was made

- **Etching.** The artist draws with a needle through a waxy coating on a copper plate, and acid bites the exposed lines. The plate is then inked, wiped and printed under pressure, so the line keeps the freedom of drawing.
- **Engraving.** Lines cut directly into a metal plate with a steel burin, which makes them swell and taper. It took years to master, and for centuries it was how paintings travelled as pictures.

### [Giovanni Battista Nolli](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/giovanni-battista-nolli)

Italian, 1701–1756

Nolli was an architect and surveyor from the region around Como who worked in Rome. He spent more than a decade surveying the city for the great map published in 1748, the Pianta Grande di Roma, engraved on twelve plates. Its innovation was to show buildings in ground plan, with church interiors, courtyards and other public spaces left open, so that streets, piazzas and accessible interiors read as one continuous public realm. Urban designers still use the method.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

## Facts

- Type: Print
- Culture: Italy
- The artist was 47
- Real size: about 17 × 27 in (43 × 69 cm). The 18 × 24 in print is close to life size.
- Century: 18th century
- Movement: [Rococo](https://www.ochreeditions.com/movements/rococo)
- Colour: grey
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/792.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/792/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/nuova-pianta-di-roma-data-in-luce-da-giambattista-nolli-l-an-cma-423518).