Nearly seven metres long and only 34 centimetres wide, the Tabula Peutingeriana is a 13th-century monk’s copy of a much older map of the Roman road network. This fascinating map stretches from Portugal to India — and stretch is the operative word here, with the distortion inherent in such an aspect ratio. So fragile it cannot stand the sun, it is almost never shown to the public. But last Monday was an exception: the BBC reports that it was put on display at the Austrian National Library, where it presently resides, for a grand total of one day to celebrate its listing on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register.

In the BBC story, a curator compares it to a diagrammatic transit plan like the Beck tube map, which I find quite interesting.