How to make the Tiber Navigable from Perugia to Rome

This splendid 17th century work combines the most advanced hydraulic engineering and landscape painting techniques of the time and addresses the problem of restoring navigability on the River Tiber between Rome and Perugia. The precious original manuscript from 1675 is stored today in the Library of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei and Corsiniana of Rome. It was a collaboration of two Dutchmen living in Rome, the painter and draughtsman Caspar van Wittel (1652/53–1736) and the hydraulic engineer Cornelis Meyer, who travelled the banks of the Tiber between Perugia and Rome together collecting information and impressions of important sections.

Views of the Tiber

Van Wittel is renowned for his role in the development of vedute as a specialty of Italian art. Italian for “view”, vedute are detailed cityscapes and vistas, typically large in scale, and can be either paintings or prints. The first veduta painted by van Wittel were created shortly after his arrival in Rome when he collaborated with Meyer on the Tiber project. The artist completed 50 drawings for the project altogether, many of these artfully illustrated Meyer’s designs for restoring the Tiber’s navigability, including various mechanical devices. Some of these van Wittel later used for some vedute he painted in the early 1680’s. The drawings of the young van Wittel demonstrate the mastery of the blossoming artist and Meyer’s imaginative engineering.