Tabula Peutingeriana

Tabula Peutingeriana (section of a modern facsimile), top to bottom: Dalmatian coast, Adriatic Sea, southern Italy, Sicily, African Mediterranean coast

Tabula Peutingeriana (Latin for 'The Peutinger Map'), also referred to as Peutinger's Tabula,[1] Peutinger tables[2] or Peutinger Table, is an illustrated itinerarium (ancient Roman road map) showing the layout of the cursus publicus, the road network of the Roman Empire.

The map is a parchment copy, dating from around 1200, of a Late Antique original.[3] It covers Europe (without the Iberian Peninsula and the British Isles), North Africa, and parts of Asia, including the Middle East, Persia, and the Indian subcontinent. According to one hypothesis, the existing map is based on a document of the 4th or 5th century that contained a copy of the world map originally prepared by Agrippa during the reign of the emperor Augustus (27 BC – AD 14).

However, Emily Albu has suggested that the existing map could instead be based on an original from the Carolingian period.[4] According to Albu, the map was likely stolen by the humanist Conrad Celtes, who bequeathed it to his friend, the economist and archaeologist Konrad Peutinger, who gave it to Emperor Maximilian I as part of a large-scale book stealing scheme.[5]

Named after the 16th century German antiquarian Konrad Peutinger, the map has been conserved at the Austrian National Library (the former Imperial Court Library) in Vienna since 1738.[3]

  1. ^ Ravenstein 1911, p. 637.
  2. ^ James Strong and John McClintock (1880). "Eleutheropolis". In: The Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature. NY: Haper and Brothers. Accessed 30 August 2024 via biblicalcyclopedia.com.
  3. ^ a b "Die Tabula Peutingeriana" (in German). Austrian National Library. 21 November 2018.
  4. ^ Emily Albu, The Medieval Peutinger Map: Imperial Roman Revival in a German Empire. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014
  5. ^ Albu, Emily (29 August 2014). The Medieval Peutinger Map. Cambridge University Press. pp. 13, 14. ISBN 978-1-107-05942-9. Retrieved 23 February 2022.