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In the late sixteenth century, mapmakers turned away from Bufalini’s timeless fusion as well as his ichnographic language in order to sift through the Roman palimpsest. Their desire to recreate the ancient city as a counterpoint to the modern resulted in a veritable subgenre of Rome-then-and-now imagery. The pervasive theme of paragone—or competitive comparison—runs through these works, which express a longing to see the past resurrected and brought into dialogue with the present. Pirro Ligorio’s dazzling map of Roma Antica (1561) was not a reconstruction of the ancient city per se, but rather a glorious, learned reinvention. Stefano Du Pérac’s Sciographia of 1574 took inspiration from Ligorio, but incorporated a new source: the ancient, shattered marble plan know as the Forma urbis Romae. Mario Cartaro’s pendant etchings (1576/1579) made the paragone explicit by pairing the ancient city with “new” Rome or Roma Nuova. All of these works reveal shifting perceptions of Rome’s venerable past and Renaissance renewal, as well as a growing sense of historical rupture. Publishers like Antonio Lafreri, who dominated Rome’s active print business in the mid-to-late 1500s, were eager to answer the growing demand for such images and for city portraits in general.

This chapter treats the sixteenth-century study of Roman topography and antiquarian studies by antiquarians such as Bartolomeo Marliani. It also discusses a related activity, the creation of maps and urban images of Rome. The chapter reviews the development of the ichnographic or measured map from the time of Leon Battista Alberti, and the surveying that such maps required. It also focuses on a measured map of the city in Marliani’s 1544 guidebook and the ichnographic map of the city created by Leonardo Bufalini, first published in 1551. It discusses the discovery of the Capitoline Fasti and its importance for antiquarian studies. Finally it investigates the bitter rivalries and disagreements between Pirro Ligorio and his humanist friends such as Bartolomeo Egio, on the one hand, and Marliani, on the other, over the location of the ancient Roman Forum. It treats the maps of Pirro Ligorio, including his famous map of ancient Rome first published in 1561.

This chapter examines the complex effort undertaken in Rome to rediscover the entire course of an ancient aqueduct, the Acqua Vergine and to repair it in order to make it fully functional. It discusses the ancient Roman aqueducts and their remains in the sixteenth century. It also discusses the papal librarian, Agostino Steuco's investigation of the entire course of the Acqua Vergine in the 1540s, and later, in the 1560s under Pius IV, Antonio Trevisi's failed effort to repair the aqueduct, and Pirro Ligorio's bitter complaints about the project and his exclusion from it. The chapter treats the many conflicts between the Capitoline Council and the papacy concerning financing the repair and concerning Treviso's contract. Finally, it investigates the successful repair of the aqueduct under Pius V by two architects, Giacomo della Porta and Bartolomeo Grippetto, under the supervision of the jurist and member of the Capitoline Council, Luca Peto, and the oversight of Cardinal Montepulciano. The chapter focuses on the processes of repairing the aqueduct, and the conflicts engendered by that large-scale hydraulic infrastructure project. It also discusses the Roman fountains that were constructed after the completed repair made sufficient water available.

The hypothesis of a single ante-Nicean author in Rome or its environs has exerted a strong influence on Hippolytan studies since the beginnings of patristic scholarship. At present, it is one of several views meriting consideration. Solid evidence and arguments on its behalf were not produced until the second half of the sixteenth century. Prior to the sixteenth century, particular theologians and chroniclers adopted a Roman provenance for specific works of the traditional corpus with little direct analysis of the texts. The supposition of a prolific Roman author can be traced to the early manuscript tradition of Apollinarius of Laodicea, as well as the manuscript tradition of the contra Noetum, Leontius of Byzantium, Eustratius of Constantinople and Oecumenius, Anastasius of Sinai, and Germanus of Constantinople and the liturgical commentary. References in the ninth through twelfth centuries are also considered. The statue discovered by Pirro Ligorio in Rome in the mid-sixteenth century is another evidence cited in support of a Roman provenance for Hippolytus.

This chapter focuses on the Tiber River at the center of Rome and Tiber River flooding, most importantly the flood of 1557. It discusses the varied sources of water available to the city and mid-sixteenth century debates about the potability of Tiber River water. It treats Pirro Ligorio's writings on water, and writings on flood control by Andrea Bacci, Luca Peto, and Antonio Trevisi, among others. It introduces the Bufalini Map created by Leonardo Bufalini in 1551 and republished by Trevisi in 1560 with letters added advocating Trevisi's plan for ameliorating the floods of the Tiber.