Definition: The Peutinger Tablet or Map (Tabula Peutingeriana) is is a five-color 12th or 13th century copy of a late Roman map (planisphere) of the Roman world. The Peutinger Tablet shows distances and the major roads across the Roman Empire from Britain to India. It was made for civilians and provides information for travelers. The Peutinger Tablet has been compared with a subway map rather than a map in the normal sense.
The Peutinger Tablet measures about 6.75 meters by 34 centimeters wide. It may have been made in about A.D. 250 from a first century map, although the existing Austrian copy of the copy dates from the 13th century.
The existing copy is thought to have been made in 1265 by a monk at Colmar and found in the 15th century by Konrad Celtes. Then it reached the hands of Konrad Peutinger in 1508. From him, the map is known as Tabula Peutingeriana or Peutinger Tables or Itineraries.
Source: Slide #120 Monograph from the Henry-Davis Index of Cartographic Images illustrating maps from the Ancient Period: 6,200 B.C. to 400 A.D.
