New digital archive showcases historical images of Rome

Researchers digitized thousands of pieces from 19th-century archaeologist Rodolfo Lanciani's collection to help scholars across the world study Rome's transformation. A team including Stanford researchers created a new digital archive to study Rome's transformation over the centuries. The exhibit , which went online in the spring, consists of almost 4,000 digitized drawings, prints, photographs and sketches of historic Rome from the 16th to 20th centuries. The pieces were collected by renowned Roman archaeologist Rodolfo Lanciani, who sought to document the entire history of Rome's archeology up to the end of the 19th century. An'18th-century-painting'of'the'Spanish'Steps'by'Francesco-Panini is part of the collection. (Image credit: Courtesy'of'Istituto-Nazionale'di'Archeologia'e'Storia'dell'Arte) 'Rome is a layered city,' said Erik Steiner, co-director of the Spatial History Project at Stanford's Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis (CESTA) . 'To be able to see that history you need to look through those layers, and this collection helps that process.' The archive is a culmination of a two-year collaboration among CESTA, the Stanford University Libraries, University of Oregon, Dartmouth College and the Italian government.