Nolli plan

In 1748 Giovanni Battista Nolli produced a plan of Rome which has engaged and influenced architects and urbanists ever since. Nolli's plan renders private spaces such as dwellings as solid black, and public spaces such as streets and squares as white. In this respect it works like a modern street map.

Nolli's innovation is that he also renders as white the space that is within buildings but publically accessible - most notably the interiors of churches. The Nolli plan makes it very clear that churches were once an integral part of the public realm.

It is very doubtful whether a modern cartographer would see the urban fabric this way. The interiors of religious buildings are not now presumed to belong to the public at large, but to the private devotions of the faithful. Spirituality is excluded from the public realm in a literal, physical way - the doors are locked for most of the week. The insides of churches are on few people's maps these days.