# Some old world Italy maps I discovered online!



## Knightfall (Mar 20, 2009)

Check these out...

*An Old Map of Venice, Italy, Dated Roughly 1913*






*An Old Map of Florence, Italy, Dated Roughly 1500*





*An Old Plan of Rome, Italy, Dated 1549*





*An Old Plan of Rome, Italy, Dated 1572*


This one's my favorite.


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## El Mahdi (Mar 21, 2009)

Very nice!  I like that last one best, also.


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## Parduz (Mar 21, 2009)

Well, as i live in one of the oldest settlement in italy (Bologna, my town, was an etrurian site well before the Romans), i can give you some hint about "how to map an ancient town" 

I was not able to find big and coloured ancient "pictures" of my town (but i saw some of them some time ago), but these ancient plans of the town can be useful:




This is a picture of the town: Bologna is in splitted by one of the most important roman routes, the Via Emilia. So a lot of towers were raised, to watch further in the big plain. The towers still are a unique feature of Bologna.





This picture shows how the town is build around the central plaza, where is located the "main" church. A bit on the left there's the "Two Towers" which are still there today. The roads were designed by romans around the camp they built on the old etrurian site, and the town still have this "face".

Finally, a link to a site with ancient maps of the most important italian towns.
MAPPE ANTICHE

Hope that helps a bit you all cartographer 

(as always, pls forget my bad english)


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## Bishop Odo (Mar 22, 2009)

I remember watching a History channel show about some if the Italian City states and I remember one city, touted it many towers.  In fact, most of the nobles entered into a building war to see who could go higher.  Of course today there are only a few left, most fell down over the years....opps

I guess the lesson is more towers in City maps....


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## Parduz (Mar 22, 2009)

Bishop Odo said:


> I remember watching a History channel show about some if the ItalianCity states and I remember one city, touted it many towers.  In fact, most of the nobles entered into a building war to see who could go higher.  Of course today there are only a few left, most fell down over the years....opps



That city is Bologna 
Bologna - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a great Wiki entry about Bologna: i can't suggest a better english source.


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## Wraith101 (Mar 22, 2009)

I may be recalling incorrectly but I believe Florence also had some 'tower wars' before they were banned and no tower could be built taller than the old city hall (the one before the Palazzo Vecchio, the name escapes me at the moment).

I loved Bologna when I visited, you are very lucky Parduz.


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## Wraith101 (Mar 22, 2009)

Sorry for the double post, I remembered the name (It was the Bargello)!

And if we are talking towers, how about San Giminano.


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## Parduz (Mar 22, 2009)

well, we have hijacked this thread 
there's a lot of cities, towns, villages and ruins in italy that can be a good example about how they were fortified and how the population raises around castles, keeps and rivers.
From the most famous towns, like Siena - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (another town that may shows how a city can be "poor" or "rich" depending on trading routes) from the thousands of small villages between Rome and L'Aquila (they all are on top of the mountains, all for defending purposes) there's a lot of source of inspiration for the RPG world builders. Sure, there's not so much Magic in Italy 
I'm not an expert, but I'm pretty sure that each european can show good example about this: after all the Roman Pax was established using the Gladius, and the Northern tribes was not really peaceful even before the Romans.
(This argument can lead to infinite forks: about the Gladius sword, i still have to find, in D&D or any other fantasy RPG something similar to what we've seen in reality. While the "celtic" swords are more sexy, they were used by tall ppl, while the romans - small ppl, 1.50m average - adopted a shorter sword...)

Wraith, glad you liked it 

Knightfall, sorry for hijacking.


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