Tabula Peutingeriana
- Also called:
- Peutinger Table and Peutinger Map
Tabula Peutingeriana, copy of an ancient Roman map, made in 1265 by a monk of Colmar (Alsace) on 12 sheets of parchment. Eleven of the sheets are now in the Nationalbibliothek in Vienna. The dimensions are 268 by 13 1/3 inches (6.82 by 0.34 metres). The copy was found by Conradus Celtis in 1494 and was bequeathed by him to his friend Konrad Peutinger (1465–1547) of Augsburg.
The shape of the Tabula Peutingeriana, an elongated rectangle, causes a grave deformation of the Roman world, the distances from north to south being compressed and those from east to west being unduly extended. The map is in six colours—black, red, green, yellow, blue, and rose. Opinions have differed as to how closely the lost original depended on Roman itineraries and world maps. The table depicts an area beyond the frontiers of the Roman Empire to the east. See also itinerarium.