River
Fluvius Isex
Idice
Listen to the story
Just beyond Bologna, the Tabula draws a river coming down from the Apennines, crossing the Via Aemilia and, after a sharp bend, running on to join the Po. This is Fluvius Isex, today the Idice in northern Italy. The map is the only ancient source for it, and the name seems to be miscopied, Isex written for Idex. The drawing preserves a lost landscape: today the stream ends in the Reno, but in Roman times it reached the southern arm of the Po delta on its own course. Where the road crossed it stood a station of the same name, and in 1313 a hospice there was entrusted to hermit friars, who had to keep the bridge in repair.