TABULAPICTA

Maps and images to understand history.

When a Roman general celebrated a triumph, paintings of the conquered cities, the rivers crossed and the battles fought were paraded through the streets of Rome, alongside the spoils and the prisoners. They were the tabulae pictae.

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Detail of the Tabula Peutingeriana with Rome enthroned in a medallion, red roads, cities and bands of sea, printed in risograph inks — Tabula Peutingeriana, the great road map of the Roman Empire. The segment with Rome; a 13th-century copy in the Austrian National Library (public domain), reprinted in our inks.

The atlas

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Each topic is an essay to read at your own pace, with its maps or figures, its images and, in history, its video. The end of Rome, Byzantium and the Presocratics are ready; Islam, the philosophers of Athens and the myths painted in the great museums will follow.