All maps are wrong, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have plenty to tell us.

That was part of the message delivered by UO architecture professor James Tice in the winter 2015 Presidential Research Lecture, which he gave last week to a full house of students, faculty and community members.

During his lecture, Tice gave an overview of the history of mapmaking in Rome, which extends back to the third century.

“The artistic energy that went into creating these maps is extraordinary,” Tice remarked. “Even when they are wrong — and all maps are wrong — they still contain a lot of useful information.”

That’s because maps are more than just a two-dimensional representation of a three-dimensional world. Maps also reflect what people thought about the world around them and how that thinking changed over time.

“Maps can assist with finding our way, but they also provide a window into understanding buildings, streets and even people,” Tice said, opening his lecture. “They represent evolving patterns of politics, society, religion and technology.”

Tice was joined by one of his collaborators, Erik Steiner, at the Feb. 6 lecture. The pair led a team that designed an online interactive map of Rome based on the 1748 map of the city by Giambattista Nolli.

The online map engine allows users to compare the historical map with a modern satellite view of the city while exploring different design elements, including gardens, fountains, and public spaces. Since the launch of the website, it has attracted approximately a quarter million people from around the world.

As one of the most thoroughly documented cities in world, Rome has developed two distinct mapmaking traditions: pictorial representation of buildings and abstract depictions of the streets.

Throughout his lecture, Tice depicted how these two traditions intersected and changed as technology and society evolved. In the early centuries of Roman mapmaking, maps were traditionally drawn with east oriented up, looking towards Jerusalem. In addition to offering incredible detail, the Nolli Map also re-oriented the city to magnetic north, marking major changes in scientific technology and how the citizens of Rome viewed their place in the world.

Tice is currently working on his third venture into interactive online maps related to Rome — the GIS Forma Urbis Romae Project: Creating a Layered History of Rome.

Many of the maps discussed in Professor Tice’s lecture are available to view as part of an exhibit in the Hayden Gallery, located in Lawrence Hall, through February 20.

Tice’s talk was the fifth Presidential Research Lecture. The lecture is sponsored by the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation and is delivered twice a year by the recipients of the Outstanding Research Career Award — one of the UO’s Research Excellence Awards.

—By Andrew Stiefel, Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation