Where


Lucca East and West

On the road leading from Genoa to Rome, by land:
Lucca is an ancient, archaic city, of wonderful construction, with remarkable buildings, flourishing markets, and industries well on track.

al-Idrīsī

The World Upside Down

Studying the past changes the perspective on the present.

Weltkarte des Idrisi

Tabula Rogeriana, reproduction of Muhammad al-Idrīsī's original by Konrad Miller (1928)

The Tabula is reproduced upside down, in compliance with nowadays common arrangement of maps, the North up and the South down. Exactly the opposite convention was applied in ancient and medieval maps. In Konrad Miller's reproduction of al-Idrīsī's Tabula, the original Arabic names are transcribed in the Latin alphabet.

We are here

PhiBor is part of the IMT School for Advanced Studies in Lucca, Italy. The entire campus is found within the historic city center of the medieval town of Lucca, which is completely surrounded by fully-intact Renaissance-era walls.