Waarschynlyke Verbeelding Der Gedaante van den Roomschen Heirweg Buiten de Stad en der Naburige Wegen en Plaatzen aan Dien Gehecht, engraved in 1704 by the Dutch master Francois Halma, offers a captivating vision of Rome at its threshold. Rather than a cramped street plan, this city map revels in the city’s edge—where fortress walls give way to arterial roads and the Tiber’s crossings pull commerce and ceremony outward. Halma’s bird’s-eye vantage translates infrastructure into narrative: aqueducts stride across the landscape, an arch signals arrival and triumph, and monuments anchor the urban horizon. It is a city map with a difference, charting how Rome’s life-blood pulsed along the routes that once bound empire and, centuries later, still carried pilgrims, traders, and ideas.

The composition draws the eye along the principal Roman road as it threads from the gates into a countryside busy with cultivation and exchange. A bridge over the Tiber River knits the capital to its hinterland, while aqueducts, temples, and statues articulate the sacred and civic stages upon which Rome performed its identity. Troops on the march and carriages crowding the thoroughfare animate the scene, revealing a lived roadscape rather than a sterile plan. Agricultural plots, grazing animals, and roadside shrines add texture to the liminal belt where city dissolves into field. In charting these flows, Halma presents a rare city view that understands Rome not only in walls and forums, but in the networks that sustained it.

Francois Halma, renowned in the Netherlands for intricate city views and maps of the late 17th and early 18th centuries, channels the Northern engraver’s precision into Roman drama. His pictorial, bird’s-eye method allows distance and depth to coexist with documentary detail: crenellated walls read as fortification and symbol; arches register as both topography and ceremony. Ornate staffage—figures, animals, and passing carriages—enlivens the margins without distracting from the clarity of routes and landmarks. This balance of information and spectacle is Halma’s hallmark, and here it underscores the social vibrancy of ancient transport corridors, where traders, soldiers, and worshipers shared the same stones, their converging paths turning infrastructure into theater.

As a map of a world city, this work excels by revealing what most urban plans conceal: circulation. The Tiber functions as a commercial corridor; bridges channel movement between quarters and fields; aqueducts deliver the city’s most vital resource across improbable spans. Fortress walls demarcate civic power, yet the roads pierce them, carrying the city’s reach outward and drawing lifeways inward. By the early 18th century many of these ancient arteries still organized travel, pilgrimage, and trade, so Halma’s view registers both antiquity and contemporaneity. Rome appears not as a static monument but as a living machine, its prosperity fed by the disciplined geometry of roads and the river’s mutable current.

Look closely and the map becomes a learned promenade: temples punctuate the procession like milestones of memory; statues and monuments converse across the open air; fields ripple with labor that provisioned markets within the walls. Without burdening the eye with street labels, Halma invites an intuitive reading anchored by landmark forms and the logic of movement. The result is a rich, legible portrait of Rome’s urban metabolism at the city’s edge—where ceremony meets commerce, and stone meets soil. For the connoisseur of Rome and the history of infrastructure, this is an illuminating, narrative city map, attuned to the routes that made the capital enduringly legible to travelers across time.

Streets and roads on this map

• No specific street names or road labels were visibly identifiable in the image provided.

Notable Features & Landmarks

• Aqueducts
• Arch
• Bridge over the Tiber River
• Carriages and horses on the road
• Fortress walls
• Temples
• Various agricultural scenes
• Statues and monuments
• Troops depicted on the road

Historical and design context

• Creation Date: 1704
• Mapmaker: Francois Halma, a Dutch engraver known for intricate city views and maps (late 17th–early 18th centuries)
• Region: Ancient Rome and its surrounding landscape
• Design and Style: bird’s-eye pictorial map with detailed engraving; ornate illustrations featuring figures, animals, and architectural highlights
• Themes and Topics: visualizes the Roman road outside Ancient Rome and surrounding routes; conveys the social vibrancy of ancient transport and traffic
• Historical Significance: highlights the enduring legacy of Roman infrastructure; many roads remained in use in the 18th century, with lasting cultural and economic impacts

Please double check the images to make sure that a specific town or place is shown on this map. You can also get in touch and ask us to check the map for you.

This map looks great at every size, but I always recommend going for a larger size if you have space. That way you can easily make out all of the details.

This map looks amazing at sizes all the way up to 70in (180cm). If you are looking for a larger map, please get in touch.

The model in the listing images is holding the 16x20in (40x50cm) version of this map.

The fifth listing image shows an example of my map personalisation service.

If you’re looking for something slightly different, check out my collection of the best old maps to see if something else catches your eye.

Please contact me to check if a certain location, landmark or feature is shown on this map.

This would make a wonderful birthday, Christmas, Father's Day, work leaving, anniversary or housewarming gift for someone from the areas covered by this map.

This map is available as a giclée print on acid free archival matte paper, or you can buy it framed. The frame is a nice, simple black frame that suits most aesthetics. Please get in touch if you'd like a different frame colour or material. My frames are glazed with super-clear museum-grade acrylic (perspex/acrylite), which is significantly less reflective than glass, safer, and will always arrive in perfect condition.

This map is also available as a float framed canvas, sometimes known as a shadow gap framed canvas or canvas floater. The map is printed on artist's cotton canvas and then stretched over a handmade box frame. We then "float" the canvas inside a wooden frame, which is available in a range of colours (black, dark brown, oak, antique gold and white). This is a wonderful way to present a map without glazing in front. See some examples of float framed canvas maps and explore the differences between my different finishes.

For something truly unique, this map is also available in "Unique 3D", our trademarked process that dramatically transforms the map so that it has a wonderful sense of depth. We combine the original map with detailed topography and elevation data, so that mountains and the terrain really "pop". For more info and examples of 3D maps, check my Unique 3D page.

Many of our maps and art prints are chosen as thoughtful gifts for homes, offices, studies and meaningful places.

Choose a framed option for the easiest ready-to-hang gift, or choose an unframed print if the recipient may prefer to select their own frame.

We make orders locally in 23 countries around the world, so gifts can often be produced close to the recipient. This helps them arrive faster, travel more safely, and avoid customs or import duty surprises.

• We can deliver directly to the recipient
• Framed pieces arrive ready to hang
• Unframed prints are carefully packed in a strong protective tube
• Almost every order is made locally, for faster, safer gifting
• 90-day returns give the recipient time to decide

If you are not sure what to choose, please contact us. We can help you pick the right map, size, finish or delivery option.

Most orders are made locally and delivered in around 2–3 working days, depending on the product, size and destination.

We print and frame maps and artwork in 23 countries around the world, so your order is usually made close to you or your recipient. That means faster delivery, less time in transit, and no customs or import duty surprises.

Personalised and customised pieces usually take an extra 1–2 working days, because we prepare your design and send it to you for approval before printing.

Very large framed orders can take a little longer, as they need extra care in production and delivery.

Every order is carefully packaged: unframed prints are sent in a strong protective tube, while framed pieces are securely packed with protective materials around the frame.

If you need your order by a particular date, please contact us before ordering. We’ll check the best production route and delivery option for your location.

Express delivery is available at checkout for most countries. Next-day delivery is available in the UK, US, Singapore and the UAE.

Your order is covered by our 90-day returns policy and 10-year guarantee.

Read our full delivery and local production guide

Our standard frame is a gallery-style black ash hardwood frame, with a simple, modern look. It is approximately 20mm (0.8in) wide. You can also view some lovely customer photos of framed maps and art.

We use super-clear acrylic glazing, also known as Perspex or Acrylite, instead of traditional glass. It is lighter, safer, and has lower reflectivity, giving the artwork a clearer, cleaner appearance.

Six standard frame colours are available at no extra cost: black, dark brown, dark grey, oak, white, and antique gold. Custom framing and mounting/matting is also available for customers looking for something more specific.

Most maps, art prints, and illustrations are also available as a framed canvas. We use matte cotton canvas, stretch it over a sustainably sourced wooden box frame, and then float the piece within a wooden outer frame. The finished result is beautifully presented, with no glazing between you and the artwork.

All frames are supplied ready to hang, with either string or brackets fitted to the back. Very large frames will include heavy-duty hanging plates and/or a mounting baton. If you have any questions, please get in touch.

We can also supply old maps and artwork on canvas, foam board, cotton rag, and other materials.

If you would prefer to frame your map or artwork yourself, please read our size guide before ordering.

My maps are extremely high quality reproductions of original maps.

I source original, rare maps from libraries, auction houses and private collections around the world, restore them at my London workshop, and then use specialist giclée inks and printers to create beautiful maps that look even better than the original.

My maps are printed on acid-free archival matte (not glossy) paper that feels very high quality and almost like card. In technical terms the paper weight/thickness is 10mil/200gsm. It's perfect for framing.

I print with Epson ultrachrome giclée UV fade resistant pigment inks - some of the best inks you can find.

I can also make maps on canvas, cotton rag and other exotic materials.

Learn more about The Unique Maps Co.

Map personalisation

If you're looking for the perfect anniversary or housewarming gift, I can personalise your map to make it truly unique. For example, I can add a short message, or highlight an important location, or add your family's coat of arms.

The options are almost infinite. Please see my map personalisation page for some wonderful examples of what's possible.

To order a personalised map, select "personalise your map" before adding it to your basket.

Get in touch if you're looking for more complex customisations and personalisations.

Map ageing

I have been asked hundreds of times over the years by customers if they could buy a map that looks even older.

Well, now you can, by selecting Aged before you add a map to your basket.

All the product photos you see on this page show the map in its Original form. This is what the map looks like today.

If you select Aged, I will age your map by hand, using a special and unique process developed through years of studying old maps, talking to researchers to understand the chemistry of aging paper, and of course... lots of practice!

If you're unsure, stick to the Original colour of the map. If you want something a bit darker and older looking, go for Aged.

See some amazing examples of Aged maps.

If you are not happy with your order for any reason, contact me and I'll get it fixed ASAP, free of charge. Please see my returns and refund policy for more information.

I am very confident you will like your restored map or art print. I have been doing this since 1984. I'm a 5-star Etsy seller. I have sold tens of thousands of maps and art prints and have over 5,000 real 5-star reviews. My work has been featured in interior design magazines, on the BBC, and on the walls of dozens of 5-star hotels.

I use a unique process to restore maps and artwork that is massively time consuming and labour intensive. Hunting down the original maps and illustrations can take months. I use state of the art and eye-wateringly expensive technology to scan and restore them. As a result, I guarantee my maps and art prints are a cut above the rest. I stand by my products and will always make sure you're 100% happy with what you receive.

Almost all of my maps and art prints look amazing at large sizes (200cm, 6.5ft+) and I can frame and deliver them to you as well, via special oversized courier. Contact me to discuss your specific needs.