Memory of the World; 2012 - unesdoc - Unesco

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Tabula Peutingeriana
Inscribed 2007
What is it
The Tabula Peutingeriana is a unique preserved map
of the road system for the cursus publicus, the Roman
Empire’s public transportation system. It consists
of eleven segments with the map, written on parchment.
Why was it inscribed
The Tabula Peutingeriana offers insights into the
history of administration and economy in the Roman
Empire and unique information on the topography and
geography of all the provinces and territories under
Roman rule.
Where is it
Austrian National Library, Vienna, Austria
The cursus publicus was the public transportation system
that stretched across the Roman Empire. It carried
government messages and certain goods and allowed
travel by government offi cials. Stations along the way
provided lodging, food, vehicles and animals.
The Tabula Peutingeriana maps the road system that
the cursus publicus used. It covers the complete area
of the provinces under Roman rule and the territories
conquered by Alexander the Great in the East.
The information on the map is not an accurate
geographical description of where the roads lie on the
landscape. Instead, rather like modern urban underground
maps, the Tabula was a stylized rendering of the structure
and network of the cursus publicus. This explains why
the sea is missing from the map and also its west-east
orientation. Cities are denoted by symbols according
to their importance.
As the only map of the cursus publicus, the Tabula
Peutingeriana is of great importance for all studies
concerning the administration and economy of the
Roman Empire. It also serves as a guide for historians and
archaeologists. Much information about the topography
and historical geography relating to archaeological sites in
Europe, Africa and Asia is only known through the Tabula
Peutingeriana.
The original Tabula dates back to the fi rst half of the
5th century and the manuscript inscribed on the Register
92 Tabula Peutingeriana
is an authentic copy made at the end of the 12th century –
in eff ect, a medieval facsimile in the form of a scroll.
The Tabula Peutingeriana is named after Konrad
Peutinger, a German humanist and antiquarian who was
responsible for publishing the map in 1591. It stayed in his
family, but in 1737 it was bought for the Habsburg Imperial
Library (now the Austrian National Library).
The Tabula Peutingeriana is one of only two preserved
book scrolls made in the Middle Ages as an imitation of the
form used in Antiquity for literary texts (that is, book scroll
written on papyrus). The other manuscript, kept in the
Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, the Vatican Library, is a copy
of the text of the Old Testament made in 10th-century
Constantinople.