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The Visual Preservation of Roman Stabiae presents the first ever comprehensive survey of the decorated walls in the excavated parts of the villa. Based on research undertaken between 2011 and 2024 by faculty and students in the programs of Architecture, Art History, and Archaeology at the University of Maryland, it illustrates 113 in situ frescoes using an innovative method that combines hand-drawing with precise digital measurement. By opting to represent the frescoes together with their architectural context, and not as isolated images, it brings fresh analysis to the way Roman wall paintings interacted with their physical environments and with viewers.

Joseph C. Williams is an Associate Professor of Architecture at University of Maryland. He holds a Ph.D. in architectural history from Duke University and specializes in the knowledge and practice of premodern builders in South Italy and the greater Mediterranean. He specializes in the methods of building archaeology, digital building documentation, and cognitive architectural history. In 2020, Williams published Architecture of Disjuncture: Mediterranean Trade and Cathedral Building in a New Diocese (Brepols). Between 2019 and 2024, he directed the University of Maryland archaeological campaign to document frescoed rooms in the Villa Arianna, of Roman Stabiae, supervised by the Restoring Ancient Stabiae Foundation and the Soprintendenza Archeological di Pompei, with support from the Stanley and Wilhelmina Jashemski Foundation. Williams published the results of this research in his edited volume The Visual Preservation of Stabiae: The Villa Arianna survey and the study of frescoes in their physical context. Among other honors, he has been the recipient of a two-year fellowship at the American Academy in Rome.

Maryl B. Gensheimer is a historian of Roman art and archaeology. Her research focuses on the art and architecture of the city of Rome, on the Bay of Naples, and in Asia Minor and Roman Britain. She is particularly interested in ancient cities and urban life, and the social structures and interdependent systems of urban design and urban infrastructure that impacted the ancient experience of monuments and spaces. She holds a B.A. in art history from Williams College (2005) and earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in Classical art and archaeology at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University (2013). Dr. Gensheimer's work has been recognized by the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA), Center for Ancient Studies at NYU, Graduate School of Arts and Science at NYU, Lemmermann Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Society of Architectural Historians (SAH), and US-Italy Fulbright Commission. Most recently, Dr. Gensheimer's first book, Decoration and Display in Rome's Imperial Thermae, was awarded the 2020 Gustave O. Arlt Award in the Humanities by the Council of Graduate Schools.