BACKGROUND
Perhaps more than any other single factor water determines where cities grow
and how they develop. Water—too much, too little, or in the wrong places—can
make or break a city’s fortunes. Nonetheless, water can to a degree, be
controlled, manipulated, and bent to human will. The ways that has been done
over nearly three thousand years is the subject of Aquae
Urbis Romae: The Waters of the City of Rome, a project that examines water
as a living system in the urban development of the city. This is the first work
that attempts to take in the whole hydrological and hydraulic history of Rome
as a single continuum of technology and topography, and to bring that continuum
to life in ways that are enlightening to students and scholars in a wide array
of fields.
The theoretical basis of the investigation is grounded on an understanding
that every element of this water history is part of an integrated system.
This system
includes dynamic, natural (hydrological) elements such as the Tiber River,
springs, streams, marshes, floods and rainwater, as well as tectonic (hydraulic)
elements
such as sewers, baths, aqueducts, wells, fountains, conduits, and cisterns,
all linked through topography. No feature operates in isolation; rather,
each
is in a delicately exploited topographical relationship with every other element.
Hence, to understand any part, you must have some knowledge of the system
as
a whole. The relationship of each feature to its neighbors up and downstream
determined to a large degree how much water could be delivered to each
area
of the city. It also determined how water arrived in a city (aqueducts, streams,
channels, etc.), who paid for the water and whom it served (state, patron,
populace,
private citizens, industry, etc.); how water was stored and distributed (holding
tanks, cisterns, metal or terracotta pipes, etc.); the work that it did
at each
stage (drinking, bathing, laundry, animals, factory, irrigation, etc.); how
it was displayed when it arrived at its destination (jets, sprays, falls,
streams,
etc.); and finally, how it left the city. Because of these strong physical
relationships and because hydrological infrastructure is closely allied
with political, cultural
and social agendas, (think of the movie “Chinatown”) water technology
offers a perfect lens through which to study the urban history of Rome.
Nonetheless, except when it is absent, as during a drought, or when it is too
plentiful, as during a flood, water is easy to ignore. Other aspects of public
infrastructure, such as roads can be seen and traversed -- visibly and physically
connecting people and places. However, much of the public infrastructure of
water is hidden underground and only referenced by the occasional drinking fountain,
sewer manhole, or fire hydrant. Therefore, while water is one of the basic building
blocks of any city, it is largely unknown, misunderstood, and ignored by designers,
administrators, and the public.
Conceived as a research and design tool for American students enrolled in academic
programs in Rome, Aquae Urbis Romae will also be useful for other persons as
well. Ultimately the goal of the project is to encourage a new level of urban
analysis and appreciation, based on an acknowledgment of the impact that hydrological
forces and processes, and hydraulic technology have on the development of a
city. By examining Rome, or any other city through its water infrastructure,
students and historians gain a richer understanding of urban history, form and
technology; designers and planners are able to ground their theoretical and
design work more fully in the real context of the city; and citizens are able
to see their city as a network of linked forces, which in turn brings a deeper
understanding of the specific features of individual neighborhoods and places.
THE PROJECT
Aquae Urbis Romae is an interactive Web-based research archive for architecture,
landscape, planning, urban design, and history, as well as the related disciplines
of geography, archaeology, and engineering. Initial funding to create the computer
prototype was received from the NEH in 1997-98. The prototype was made public
in January 1999. The whole project is constructed around a series of new maps
of Rome created especially for Aquae Urbis Romae. The first map shows the basic
hydrological setting of the city, including the Tiber River, springs, streams,
and the marshy areas. This map is a composite of contemporary and historical
geological and archaeological data and attempts to describe the parameters of
roman hydrology. The second overlays late twentieth century city streets and
blocks on this hydrological setting, while the third shows the hydrological
setting marked off with late twentieth century topography at one-meter intervals.
Like the hydrological system that Aquae Urbis Romae represents, the web site
itself is dynamic. The structure of the site allows study of this complex
urban
system in both linear and lateral modes – specifically through topography,
typology, and chronology as well as through historic and contemporary images,
maps, drawings, prints and texts.
The first section, “typology,” allows the user to create his or her
own map of the city by overlaying up to three different sorts of data on any
one of three base maps. The catagories of typological data that can be studied
will include broad topics such as aqueducts and bridges (ancient, baroque and
modern), sewers, and distribution lines (principally for the baroque and modern
periods). It will also include more narrowly defined catagories such as all
known examples of ancient nymphaea, or projects sponsored by specific individuals
such as Marcus Agrippa or Benito Mussolini, or all the public fountains designed
by individuals such as Gian Lorenzo Bernini or Giacomo della Porta. This section
will also include data related to the world of work, such as the location of
the various port activities, the distribution of water-powered grain mills
in
the 17 century, or of public laundry fountains during the16th and 17th centuries,
for example. Water sites associated with ancient myths and literature will
also
be included in the future.
Thus far fifteen typology layers have been completed, but only six layers are
currently available on the web site. Ultimately however, there will be more
than 100 categories, and any combination of three layers will be possible. I
would like to emphasize that much of this data has never been mapped comprehensively,
i.e. data about a particular type, drawn from a variety of sources, drawn at
the same scale, with the same orientation, and on the same page. Some mapping
is more precise than others due to the precision of the original reports, and
some material has never been mapped scientifically, but merely exists in verbal
and written work, principally up to the late 19th century.
The “chronology” section also uses the same three base maps, and
allows the user to follow the hydrological development of the city through
a series
of time-line maps that span history from 753 BC to the present day. This section
will ultimately present a series of fifty, detailed, sequential, time-line
maps,
each of which is a composite snap-shot of important hydrological developments
during a particular period of time. Some maps, such as those for the medieval
period, for which there is little information, will incorporate several hundred
years. Others, such as those for the baroque period for which there is an abundance
of material, will cover as few as five or ten years. This section is completed
through the Middle Republican period.
The “topography” section provides access to a three-dimensional topographic
model of the intramural city over which any of the “chronology” or
“typology” maps can be “draped” by the computer and then
viewed as “Quick Time” movies or in Virtual Reality. Created in "Form
Z", the model is sampled at a vertical resolution of one meter, and scaled
3:1 for clarity.
The “typology” and “chronology” (but not the “topography”)
maps are hyper-linked to an inventory and to the text and image sections, which
work together to allow the student to go directly to selected primary and secondary
literary, visual, and archaeological sources. The links will go in both directions,
allowing the user to move freely from the maps to the texts and back again.
Every water feature on the maps, (currently more than 800 individual elements)
is identified by a unique inventory number. By clicking on a specific feature
an inventory entry is accessed which will ultimately include: identifying information
and discussion of the feature’s importance in the hydraulic history of
the city; an outline of current scholarship on the feature and/or its type;
a contemporary or historic image (sometimes both); a bibliography for the specific
feature; and links to selected primary and secondary literary and archaeological
sources, maps and images. A search engine and comprehensive index facilitate
research.
Primary sources include English translations of Latin texts such as The
Two Books on the Water Supply of the City of Rome, by Sextus Julius
Frontinus, of AD 97. It will be possible to link directly from this text to
the specific "Chronology" map where a particular feature occurs for
the first time. Secondary sources will include difficult-to-obtain studies,
including Pietro Narducci’s Sulla fognatura
della città di Roma, which is the major study of ancient Roman
sewers and includes a series of important measured sectional drawings. Other
documents and images, including the aqueduct prints of Piranesi and the fountain
prints of Gianbattista Falda are being added, as they become available. Important
works on aqueducts and other hydraulic technology such as Raffaele Fabretti,
De aquis et aquaeductibus veteris Romae (Rome,
1680) and will made available from the collections of various collaborating
archives and libraries. These currently include the Fiske Kimball Library at
the University of Virginia and the Burndy Library at the Dibner Institute for
the History of Science and Technology at MIT. As the archive grows, it will
become increasingly more valuable as a research tool that will complement the
extensive cartographic work. This section will also be supplemented with an
electronic journal of Roman water studies. The first articles will be: Rebecca
R. Benefiel, "The inscriptions of the aqueducts of Rome: the ancient period"
(available in Spring 2001), and Rabun Taylor, "Tiber River bridges and
the urban development of Rome" (available Winter 2002).
Another major goal of the project is to assign real-world coordinates to the
map and the individual features to allow users to interface with GIS data
for Rome. Each
feature will be referenced to x, y, and, when possible, to Z coordinates. It
will also be possible to refine and update this information from contemporary
archaeological excavations, and to incorporate changes that the city makes
to the water infrastructure system.
GOALS FOR THE PROJECT
Aquae Urbis Romae is more than simply a tool for understanding Rome. It also
suggests a strategy for looking at other cities. Ideally, the project will
be
a “jumping-off place” for further research and analysis by others
into the role that water infrastructure plays in urban development. How will
this happen? Rome is one of the most intensively studied of all cities,
and something of a laboratory for design professionals and urban historians
throughout the world. Most European countries and the United States have a
major
scholarly presence in Rome, both in the form of study-abroad programs and permanent
institutions such as the American Academy and the British School in Rome.
Aquae Urbis Romae engages most of the disciplines that draw students to Rome.
Many fall under the general rubric of environmental design, including architecture,
landscape architecture, urban planning and design, and architectural, landscape,
and urban history; but the project contains significant resources for the related
disciplines of art history, cartography, hydrology, geography, archaeology,
and classics as well. For all of these disciplines, the project will provide
the basis for a general knowledge of the urban development of Rome by examining
how water, the most essential element for human survival and the growth of cities
is exploited, controlled, and manipulated for political, social, cultural, religious
and other goals. By encouraging its users to find new ways to formulate research
and design questions, Aquae Urbis Romae should help students and scholars develop
new strategies for solving research problems in all sorts of contexts, whether
or not they are studying the history of Rome.
I conceived the idea for Aquae Urbis Romae and am solely responsible for all
research, writing, drawings, and photography associated with the project
to
date. I designed the conceptual structure of the web site and drew all the
computer base maps (with the exception of the 3-D model) as well as all
the “typology”
and “chronology” maps. A growing number of academic advisors continue
to provide me with thoughtful criticism and advice, and will help insure the
accuracy of information that appears on the web site. The Institute for Advanced
Technology in the Humanities at the University of Virginia (IATH) wrote the
programs, constructed the web site, and built the 3-D model, based on my original
drawings and research. IATH also publishes the site and will continue to provide
technical assistance.
The data currently available represents about five percent of the total scope
of information. At this time my work on the web site is proceeding chronologically
in order to maintain the integrity of the time-line, which currently runs from
pre-Romunlean Rome through the Middle Republic. However, since water still responds
to precisely the same physical laws now as in antiquity, and because hydraulic
engineering did not really change significantly until the late 19th century,
I am using evidence from the baroque period to gain insights into water distribution
in ancient Rome. This analysis will elucidate the importance that a basic infrastructure
element and a simple physical law played in the design of some of the most important
features that defined the character of Ancient and Baroque Rome as well as the
modern city.
My theoretical approach is amazingly straightforward but it offers fresh insights
into the primary importance that water has always assumed in urban development.
Furthermore, the mode of publication looks to the future – a future of
easy public access to information and research materials. Although far from
complete, the web site is graphically clear and elegant, and has the potential
to become a major research resource. There are few contemporary resources dedicated
to the study of the history of Rome that will have this richness of interrelated
cartographic and topographic detail either in print or electronic media. The
archival material supplements a growing number of scholarly web sites for the
study of the classics, such as the “Perseus Project” at Tufts University,
and other sites devoted to Roman archaeology, such as the “Trajan’s
Forum Project” published by The Getty Research Institute and the “Pompeii
Project” published by IATH. My goal is to create a useful and easily accessible
research tool for students, professionals, historians, and interested lay persons.
Return to Aquae Urbis Romae: the Waters of the City of Rome Bibliography