Giovanni da Tolentino Goes to Rome: A Description of the Antiquities of Rome in 1490Author(s): Richard SchofieldSource: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 43 (1980), pp. 246-256Published by: The Warburg InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/751202Accessed: 09/11/2010 12:00

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246 NOTES AND DOCUMENTS

Only romantic fancy can sustain the notion that Cyriacus of Ancona was tutor to Mehmed the Conqueror. In 1444, before the battle of Varna, he was a passionate advocate of the Christian Crusade against the Turk. There is no reason to believe that he ever reneged

on his view of the Ottoman threat.30 Cyriacus was not a witness to the end of Byzantium nor a participant in the new imperial order of the Ottomans, for by I453 he was, in all probability, already in his grave. Requiescat in pace.

JULIAN RABY Oriental Institute, Oxford autografadel Peloponneso trasmessoda LeonardoBotta',

Miscellanea Ceriani, Milan I9Io0, pp. 193, 243; Bodnar (n. I above), p. 68; Patrinelis (n. 2 above), p. 153.

30 Pall (n. 23 above), esp. pp. 34-36, 51-52. Addn. 4: P. Wittek,'Der "Beiname" des Osmanischen

Sultan Mehemmed I', Eretz-Israel, vii, 1964, pp. I44*- 153*. I owe this reference to Prof. V. M6nage.

GIOVANNI DA TOLENTINO GOES TO ROME:

A DESCRIPTION OF THE

ANTIQUITIES OF ROME IN 1490

mhe purpose of this piece is to introduce a letter describing the antiquities of Rome

written in 1490 by Giovanni da Tolentino to the poet Baldassare Taccone. It is of interest not so much as a source of information, but as an unusual fifteenth-century example of a layman, well-read in the classics, embroider- ing his recollections of monuments with descriptions by classical authors.1'

The main source of information about the author is his bald and fragmentary auto- biography, Ioannis Secundi Tolentinatis equitis et senatoris commentaria; 2 also loannis Tollen- tinatis iizz equitis epistolarum libri iizzz, Milan 1512, a collection of letters and poems written by and to him between I488 and 1512 where

the letter here discussed, of which excerpts are given below, was first published.

The essential facts about Giovanni's life are these.4 He was a member of the distin- guished Mauruzi family which claimed its origins in Tolentino. He was born in I471I and during his education became proficient in Greek and Latin. He was created a knight in 1486.5 In 1488 he was a member of the entourage that went to Naples to bring Isabella d'Aragona back to Milan to marry Gian Galeazzo Sforza.6 In 1491 he fell foul

Note on the text: Giovanni's punctuation and spelling are idiosyncratic. The text given below has been repunctuated according to modern usage. Although the spelling, like that of many texts of the period, does not conform to classical usage, it is still not necessarily wrong. I have retained his spelling except where definite mistakes are involved. Note the following: Giovanni wrote 'praetii' for 'pretii': 'dirrutae' for 'dirutae': 'Apolinem' for 'Apollinem': 'Colliseum' for 'Colosseum': 'haebetent' for 'hebetent': 'Appollo' for 'Apollo': 'perragrata' for 'peragrata': 'Tulia' for 'Tullia': and so on.

1 1 thank Mr. Robin Mathewson and Professor T. P. Wiseman for guidance with this Note. The material here presented is treated in greater detail in my Bramante studies: the Milanese period, Courtauld Institute Ph.D. thesis, 1979, pp. 349-405.

2 Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, MS S.P.II.254. The Commentaria have been published by C. Marcora in 'I commentarii di Giovanni II Tolentino', Archivio Storico Lombardo, xc, 1963, pp. 330-9 (hereafter Marcora, Commentarii). Giovanni calls himself Gio- vanni II because his grandfather was also called Giovanni.

3 The book is unpaginated. The work entitled Calculationes Suiseth Anglici, Pavia 1498, by one

'Giovanni Tollentino', is not the work of our author, despite being entered thus in the British Library catalogue. This man describes himself as a doctor from Verona and could be one of the two Giovanni da Tolentinos mentioned in the family documents in Verona: (i) born I457, who made his will in I516; or (ii) born c. 1435, who graduated in medicine in 1461: see R. Brenzoni, Fra Giovanni Giocondo Veronese, Florence I960, p. I125.

4 Biographies are to be found in P. Argelati, Biblio- theca scriptorum Mediolanensium, Milan I745, ii, I, cols. 1495-6; and P. Litta, Celebrifamiglie Italiane, iii, Milan I833, 'Mauruzi di Tolentino', tav. III (the account of C. Santini in Tolentino illustrata, con aneddoti e documenti, Fermo I793, pp. I6-17, n. 7, which begins on p. 14, adds nothing). Litta had access to some documents that I was unable to trace. Much informa- tion about Giovanni's business affairs is contained in the papers of his notary, Simone Sovico, son of Tommaso, in the Archivio di Stato di Milano, Fondo Notarile 4684-8, which are dated and numbered in the Indice Lombarda 212, s.v. 'Tolentino'. See also the Fondo Famiglie 187.

5 Marcora, Commentarii, p. 334. 6 Marcora, Commentarii, p. 334. Giovanni, who

refers to himself throughout in the third person, states that 'in qua profectione omnes urbes maritimas insulasque singillatim descripsit quamvis naufragii pene discrimen inter Circeum iugum et Baias subierit'. This description is apparently lost (pace Marcora, loc. cit., n. 7), although his account of the wed- ding survives in a letter to Taccone of 1489. His presence in the group that went to Naples is recorded in a document used by M. Daverio in his Memorie sulla storia dell'ex-ducato di Milano (MS in Milan, Archivio di Stato) excerpted by G. Giulini, Memorie spettanti alla storia, al governo ed alla descrizione della cittd e campagna di Milano, vi, Milan 1857, pp. 649-55 and the editors of B. Corio's Storia di Milano, iii, Milan I857, pp. 447-

GIOVANNI DA TOLENTINO AND ANTIQUITIES OF ROME 247 of Ludovico il Moro and was deprived of certain possessions and privileges. Subse- quently he travelled to Spain, visiting Barcelona and Cadiz in I493.7 He returned to Milan and in i495 married Tydea, the daughter of Count Pompeo Landi. In the same year he was elected to the Senate.8 With the arrival of the French he succeeded in gaining the favour of Louis XII, and various privileges and properties he had lost were restored to him. He became a decurione in 1513 and died in 1517.9

The volume of letters and poems men- tioned above provides ample evidence that Giovanni was well acquainted with many of the leading literary figures of the day- Gaspare Visconti, Matteo Bandello, Piattino Piatti and Stefano Dolcino. Of the many letters he addressed to the poet Baldassare Taccone, the one dated 20 November I490 is of particular interest, because it describes a journey that the author made to Rome and back and includes brief descriptions of the antiquities he saw there and en route.

Several deductions can be made from his account. He has practically no interest in contemporary art or architecture. The only building he refers to that is not antique is the Sanctuary at Loreto. Further, Giovanni's use of classical sources is particularly interes- ting. He used them not only to add rhetorical glitter but also as a substitute for describing

various monuments in his own words and as a prop when his memory or notes proved defective. Examples of his application of a classicizing veneer are plentiful: he uses Livy's first sentence at the beginning of the passage from the letter reproduced below; an adaptation of Horace crops up in his description of the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius; and lines from Virgil are employed in his account of the Sanctuary at Loreto and probably in his mention of a sarcophagus in Spoleto. Pliny in particular is pressed into service when his memory of some of the Roman monuments fails him. The most spectacular example of the nonsense produced by this practice occurs when he attempts to describe the obelisks. His account is a mine of misinformation that would make Huelsen turn in his grave. Pliny refers to three obelisks, as Giovanni says: (i) 'Is autem obeliscus, quem divus Augustus in Circo Magno statuit ... (ii) is vero, quem in Campo Martio. . . . Inscripti ambo rerum naturae interpretationem Aegyptiorum philosophia continent. Ei qui est in Campo, divus Augustus addidit mirabilem usum ad depren- dendas solis umbras dierumque ac noctium ita magnitudines . . . ingenio Facundi Novi mathematici. Is autem apici auratam pilam addidit . . . (iii) Tertius est Romae in Vaticano Gai et Neronis principum circo ex omnibus unus omnino fractus est in molitione quem fecerat Sesodis filius Nencoreus.'1o The first obelisk to which Giovanni refers, the Gnomon, was set up in the Campus Martius by Augustus and evidently rediscovered in the early sixteenth century. It was excavated in I748 and set up in the Piazza di Monte- citorio in I792.11 Giovanni's mention of it is impossible: the Gnomon was never at or near St. Peter's. His reason for saying that it was is that he had seen the Vatican obelisk and applied Pliny's words about the Gnomon to it. In I490 the Vatican obelisk, which had remained upright since antiquity, was near the basilica in the Piazza dei Protomartiri.12 Further proof of this confusion lies in the fact that the inscription which he claims to have seen on the Gnomon is an inaccurate version of that on the Vatican obelisk, which reads: DIVO CAESARI DIVI IULII

453. The journey to and from Naples is described by A. Dina, 'Isabella d'Aragona Duchessa di Milano e di Bari,' Archivio storico lombardo Series 5, viii, 1921, pp. 281ff.: see also K. T. Steinitz, 'The voyage of Isabella d'Aragona from Naples to Milan, January 1489,' Bibliothdque d'Humanisme et Renaissance, xxiii, I961, pp. 17-33.

SMarcora, Commentarii, p. 335. Giovanni's relations with Ludovico seem to have improved by the time he left Italy, if a document of 8 June 1493 is anything to go by. The document is a safe-conduct for Giovanni addressed jointly to the Kings of France, Sicily and Portugal requesting that 'domino Joanni non liberum transitum solum prebeant, sed illum etiam comiter et humane accipiant. . . .' (Archivio di Stato di Milano, Missive 194, fol. 27r).

8 Marcora, Commentarii, p. 336. He was a member of the Senato Secreto in 1513 (C. Santoro, Gli uffici del comune di Milano e del dominio Visconteo-Sforzesco (1216- 1515), Milan 1968, p. 389).

9Argelati, op. cit. n. 4 above, and V. Forcella, Iscrizioni delle chiese ed altri edifici di Milano, iv, Milan i890, p. 86, no. i Io record the inscription on his tomb in Sta. Maria Incoronata in Milan. The funerary monument is usually attributed to Fusina: see, for example, C. von Fabriczy in Repertorium fiir Kunst- wissenschaft, xxiv, 1901, p. 411, who reported the attribution made by D. Sant'Ambrogio in Monitore tecnico, 30 May 1901: A. Venturi, Storia dell'arte italiana, x, I, Milan I935, p. 686, n. 2: G. Nicodemi, in Storia di Milano (Treccani) x, Milan 1957, P. 797.

10 Pliny, Natural History, xxxvi, 71ff. "1History and bibliography in F. Iversen, Obelisks

in exile. i: the Obelisks of Rome, Copenhagen 1968 (hereafter Iversen), pp. 142-60 and A. Roullet, The Egyptian and Egyptianizing Monuments of Imperial Rome, Leiden 1972 (hereafter Roullet), p. 79, no. 83.

12 Iversen, pp. 19-46.

248 NOTES AND DOCUMENTS

F(ILIO) AUGUSTO T(IBERIO) CAESARI DIVI AUGUSTI F(ILIO) AUGUSTO SACRUM. It is difficult not to suspect that Giovanni had not only confused the two obelisks when he wrote his letter, but also may have fabricated the story that he had seen ('inveni') the Gnomon; for the evidence we have about the obelisk itself, apart from its sundial and base, suggests that in 1490 it was either completely buried or at least 'semnisepultus'. In any case, the impression Giovanni gives of having seen the obelisk standing is false.

Pliny says that the Gnomon and the obelisk of the Circus Maximus were inscribed with hieroglyphics. One would therefore expect Giovanni, when describing the second obelisk that he claims to have seen, to be talking about the obelisk in the Circus Maximus which does have hieroglyphics; but he cannot possibly have seen that because it was not rediscovered till 1587 when it was erected on its present site in the Piazza del Popolo.13 Giovanni has taken Pliny's words about the obelisk in the Circus Maximus and applied them to one he saw 'apud Minervam'. Which obelisk with hieroglyphics could he have seen there? He must be referring to the one now standing in front of the Pantheon, which was probably discovered during the reconstruction of the apse of Sta. Maria sopra Minerva and which had been erected close by, before 1448, in front of San Macuto, whence it was removed to its present site in 1711. Giovanni has simply taken Pliny's words ('inscripti ambo . . . continent') and applied them to the wrong obelisk: but at least he had seen the object to which his words refer.14

The third obelisk that Pliny and Giovanni mention was erected by Caligula on the spina of the Circus of Gaius and Nero. It stood there till 1586, when it was transported to the Piazza San Pietro by Fontana.15 Giovanni must have seen it because he reproduced a garbled version of its inscrip- tion, but when compiling the letter he could not remember the difference between it and the Gnomon in the Campus Martius.

Similarly, Giovanni's mention of the Pantheon confirms him as an unrepentant charlatan, however we interpret it. Whether

we understand Giovanni to be saying that the capitals are made of Syracusan bronze and ophite and porphyry, or that they are Syracusan (whatever he thinks that means) and made of ophite and porphyry, he is wrong. What happened is that Giovanni noticed a mention of the Pantheon in Pliny xxxiv, 13, which reads 'Syracusana sunt in Pantheo capita columnarum a M. Agrippa posita', where 'Syracusana' means 'made of bronze from Syracuse'. He added the non- sensical gloss 'ex ophite et porphirite'. But Pliny was referring to the first version of the Pantheon built by Agrippa and destroyed in A.D. 8o. The capitals of the present building include neither bronze nor ophite nor porphyry: needless to say, none of the columns is fluted.16

Giovanni's account is shot through with other inaccuracies from which he could have rescued himself if he had so wanted. He appears not to have read the inscriptions on the bridge of Augustus at Rimini or on the arches at Ancona and Fano; he quotes one at Terni with an inaccuracy of which previous observers were not guilty; and he is wrong even about the materials from which the Spinario and the Dioscuri are made. His predilections are nowhere revealed better than in his enumeration of the sights of the Campidoglio, where his account sacrifices accuracy to produce a description that is no doubt intended to be sparkling and literary.

Breathlessly he describes the Wolf, the monuments to Nero and Agrippina, the Hercules and the Spinario: but in the case of the Hercules he locates the statue in the wrong palace (for it was in the Palazzo dei Conservatori, not the Palazzo dei Senatori); and he describes it falsely-Hercules is not killing the lion with a club. In the case of the Spinario, he not only reports incorrectly the material of which it was made, but he places it, to judge from the context, in the wrong palace as well. Furthermore, there appear to be no other references to the existence of the statues of Jupiter the Thun- derer, Venus and Cupid, Castor and Pollux and Claudius in the Capitoline collections in the late fifteenth century. When Giovanni speaks of a colossal statue of Commodus which he says is of bronze and broken, we cannot tell whether he means the fragments of the marble statue of Constantine or the fragments of the great bronze statue of

1a Iversen pp. 65-75 and Roullet, pp. 69-70, no. 69. L. B. Alberti had located it in 1471, but there is no mention of it between then and 1587 when it was unearthed only after a long search.

14 Iversen pp. Ioo-1o5 and Roullet pp. 74-75, no. 74- 15 Iversen pp. 19ff. and Roullet, pp. 67-69, no. 68. 16 See K. De F. Licht, The Rotunda in Rome, Copen-

hagen 1968, pp. 183 and I85.

GIOVANNI DA TOLENTINO AND ANTIQUITIES OF ROME 249

Constans I, because he cannot remember the difference between bronze and marble, and both the statues were sometimes known as 'Commodus' at the time. If he is referring to the Constantine he is wrong about its material, its name and its location, for he thinks that it was in the Palazzo dei Senatori whereas it was in the Palazzo dei Conserva- tori. If he is referring to the Constans, he is wrong about the name and the location.

Giovanni's mistakes have two causes. He was primarily concerned with creating an enjoyable travelogue enlivened with a touch of rhetoric; he was not interested in accuracy for its own sake. The second reason for his lapses is the fact that he was in Rome for only four days ('quatriduo Romae acto') and there was a gap of seven months between his arrival back in Milan and the completion of the letter. From the letter and the Commentaria we know that he set off on i March 1490: he returned on 22 April and finished the letter by 20 November.17

At one point Giovanni provides us with a valuable piece of information. The two items mentioned in his description of a private collection are sufficient to show that he had visited the house of a member of the della Valle family. First, on entering the house he and his host saw two satyrs gleaming with gold. This statement, combined with the mention of another work dealt with below, must mean that he saw the much-copied pair of Pan Statues now in the Museo Capitolino. When and where they were found is un- known, but they were first described as belonging to the della Valle collection by the Prospettivo Melanese, tercet 15, in about 15oo, and slightly later by the unknown author of the Holkham Hall Sketchbook, who placed them in the house of 'Lello' della Valle.18 In 1513 they were used to decorate

the triumphal arch in honour of Leo X, so it is obvious that they were not then in a wall. The pilasters they have today must have been added when they were set into the arcade at the south of the courtyard of the house incorporated into the Palazzo della Valle-Rustici, which in Aldrovandi's day belonged to Valerio della Valle.19 Second, the 'calendarium in tabula marmorea', mentioned by Giovanni, is now lost; but we can identify it with the object mentioned by Albertini in 151o as being in the della Valle collection:- 'Obmitto (h)orologium et menses duodecim in lapide marmoreo, cum signis zodiaci et festis deorum, sculptum apud domum Vallis.'20 In 1558 it was in the collection of Bruto della Valle, according to G. Symeoni.21 Unfortunately, in the present state of research on the complexities of the della Valle family, it is not possible to say whose house Giovanni had visited or when the collection was split up among other members of the family.

In conclusion, it should be noted that Giovanni appears to have used only classical literary sources and has evidently not read any of the fifteenth-century accounts of Roman antiquities. His letter is not the work of a learned antiquarian carefully describing what he has observed, but rather a rapid, careless literary composition put together by an enthusiast well-read in Livy, Horace, Virgil, Suetonius and Pliny. It contrasts strongly with the crudely written but knowledgeable verses provided by the un- known Milanese author of the Antiquarie Prospetiche Romane about ten years later.22

RICHARD SCHOFIELD

University of Nottingham

The letter of 20 November 1490

. . . In itinere igitur declarando operepretium facturus mihi videor si urbes et flumina breviter atque in transcursu Romanas postremo ruinas propensiori stilo perscripsero, quae omnia si non

17 In the Commentaria under 149o he states: 'quinto Idus Martias Ioannes Tollentinas Lauretanum iter confecit et totam fere Italiam lustravit. Ad decimum Kal. Maias in patriam reversus est . . . (Marcora, Commentarii n. 2 above, p. 335). It is curious that he gave the impression in the Commentatia, and in the opening passage of his letter (not quoted here), that the journey to Loreto was an important part of his travels: in the letter the culmination of his trip is his stay in Rome.

1s D. D. Fienga, The Antiquarie Prospetiche Romane composte per prospectivo Melanese depictore: a document for the study of the relationship between Bramante and Leonardo da Vinci (hereafter Fienga) Ann Arbor I974, p. 238. See the Holkham Hall Sketchbook, fol. 34 (cf. A. Schmitt, 'R6mische Antikensammlungen im Spiegel eines Musterbuchs der Renaissance', Miinchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst, xxi, 1970, pp. I Ioff., who published fol. 34V).

17

19 Aldrovandi in L. Mauro, Le antichitd della cittd di Roma, Venice 1562, p. 216.

20 Opusculum de mirabilibus . . . in R. Valentini and G. Zucchetti, Codice topografico della cittd di Roma, 4 vols., Rome 1940-53 (hereafer Cod. Top.), iv, p. 492.

21 G. Symeoni, Illustratione de gli epitaffi et medaglie antiche, Lyons 1558, pp. 45ff., who illustrated it. I owe this reference to Mrs. Ruth Rubinstein.

22 Attempts to attribute the poem to Bramante seem to me unsuccessful because the evidence so far is circumstantial: see Schofield, cit. n. I, pp. 307-12 and Fienga (n. 18 above). No doubt a comparison of Bramante's poetry with that of the Prospettivo by an expert in dialects would clarify the matter.

250 NOTES AND DOCUMENTS

eleganter quam accurate tamen et verissime (ut potero) exponam.23 Quinto idus Martias iter ingressi Laude, Cremona, Regio, mox per Flaminiam, Mutina, Bononia, Forocornelii, Faventia, Forolivii, Bertanorio, Cesenna transi- vimus. Quibus urbibus quamvis vetustissimis nihil tamen memorabile vidi, praeter Mutinae, Bruti et Cassii conditoria ac cuiusdam Clodiae Plotinae quam Catonis libertam fuisse tradunt.24 Traiecto Rubicone, Ariminum, Pisaurum, Fan- umque Fortunae venimus. Arimini marmoreum pontem a Iulio Caesare constructum transivi. In medio civitatis foro fons oritur, amplo cratere exceptus. Ibi arcum triumphalem conspexi;25 alium Fani Fortunae sublimiorem aliquantulum quem cives in deae honorem erexerunt.28 Passus inde mille Methaurus transitur, apud quem memorabilis illa Carthaginensium strages fuit duce eorum Asdrubale interempto. Aspexi arcem quam Romani in facti memoriam condidere: Scapizanum

hodie nuncupatur."2 Accessimus et Senogaliam, Anconitanumque portum quo mirabilior alter nullus haeret littoribus. In eo turris adhuc stat ab Antonino Pio extructa cuius vestibulum vasta saxi mole cingitur.28 Auximum postea nos recepit urbs vetustissima opulentissimaque et marmoreis undique parietibus conspicua in quibus graecae et latinae litterae eleganter incisae passim fere leguntur. Plurimae ibi Romanorum statuae plurimaque delubra iacent.29 Ad sacratissimam Virginem Lauretanam tandem pervenimus; hor- renda sane res cum eius sacellum nullis se contingi aedificiis patiatur. Reliquum templi arcis instar, praecelsis turribus latissimisque muris munitum est. Miraculorum quae sanctissima Virgo et Dei Mater alma mortalium casus miserata praestitit tanta est multitudo ut ea si mihi linguae centum totidemque ora essent percurrere minime possem.30 Ad Tollentinates inde nostros me contuli. ... Dum vero singula perlustro foemineam statuam ex alabastrite in foro animadverti magni ab omnibus praetii estimatam. Mercari eam voluerunt Urbini Comes et Cardinalis quidam magna repromitentes. Recusavere Tollentinates utpote non ignari quantum decoris signum illud patriae afferat. Tabula est etiam marmorea graecis et latinis litteris exculpta quam Pomponius legatus vir consularis posuit.31 Tria deinde mihi sanctorum

23 Adapted from Livy i, Preface: 'Facturusne operae pretium sim si a primordio urbis res populi Romani perscripserim.. .

24 I have been unable to find any reference to such monuments in the literature on Modena or to anything that Giovanni could have been told were the tombs. His reference may have been circuitously derived from Cicero Ad Fam., xii, V, 2, which is a letter to Cassius about Decimus Brutus (not his more famous co-conspirator, M. Junius Brutus, whom Giovanni probably had in mind) being besieged in Modena in 43 B.C. Giovanni no doubt derived the mention of 'Clodia Plotina' from the fact that he had seen the name Clodia Plautilla on an inscription found in Modena in 1356: see Corpus inscriptionum Latinarum, Berlin I863ff. (hereafter CIL), xi, I, no. 884. There is no accounting for the connexion he makes between her and Cato.

25 (i) The bridge at Rimini was built by Augustus and Tiberius. The inscriptions were visible in part at least as early as Ciriaco's visit in March 1443 (CIL xi, I, p. 73 and no. 367: S. Aurigemma, Rimini: guida ai pift notevole monumenti romani. .. , Bologna 1934, PP. 13- 17). Certainly Giovanni had not read the inscriptions and he no doubt supposed that Julius Caesar built the bridge when he crossed the Rubicon. Add to CIL the interesting remarks by Leonardo Bruni in Leonardi Bruni Arretini epistolarum libri VIII, ed. L. Mehus, Florence 1741, p. 77 [I owe this reference to D. Thomason]. (ii). The fountain is in the Piazza Cavour, formerly the Piazza della Fontana, and is of antique origin: see L. and E. Tonini, Guida storico-artistica di Rimini, Rimini 1919, PP. 59-60 and C. Clementini, Trattato de'luoghi pii e de'magistrati di Rimino, Rimini 1617, p. 88; cf. p. 26. (iii) Arch of Augustus: CIL, xi, I, no. 365: Aurigemma pp. 35-36: add Bruni p. 76.

26 No doubt Giovanni decided that the Arch of Augustus at Fano was dedicated to Fortuna because the Latin name of the town was Fanum Fortunae. The arch had two inscriptions, one above the arcaded loggia and one below it. The former was destroyed in 1463; but the latter, which begins 'IMP.CAESAR DIVI F. AUGUSTUS PONTIFEX MAXIMUS ...' has always been visible and should have told him who had built it (CIL, xi, 2, nos. 6218-19: B. Weiss, 'L'Arco di Augusto a Fano nel Rinascimento,' Italia medioevale e umanistica, viii, 1965, PP. 351-8).

27 Scapezzano is near Senigallia and the Metauro in the area where the Battle of the Metaurus was fought in 207 B.C. The site of the battle is much disputed (see e.g. G. de Sanctis, Storia dei Romani, iii, 2, Turin 1917, pp. 562-7; and N. Alfieri, 'Topografia della battaglia del Metauro', Rendiconti del Istituto marchigiano di scienza, lettere ed arti, xv-xvi, 1939/40, pp. 9Iff.), but a tradition existed in classical times that it was fought close to Senigallia (see Cicero, Brutus, xviii: cf. Eutropius iii, 18: Orosius iv, 18). I have found no reference to an 'arx' being built at Scapezzano by the Romans, nor to a monument that could have been so described in the 15th century.

28 Another mistake: the monument he refers to is the Arch of Trajan, of which the inscription has always been visible. It is difficult to see what he means by the term 'vestibulum'. For the history of the arch and port, M. Natalucci, Ancona attraverso i secoli, CittA di Castello 1961, i, pp. 89-96 and io6-I13 and ii, pp. 74-77.

29 See, in general, C. Grillantini, Storia di Osimo, Pinerolo 1957. Various Roman statues now in the entrance hall to the Palazzo Comunale are mentioned in idem., Guida storico-artistica de Osimo, Pinerolo 1962, PP. 33-34-

80 The last clause is adapted from Virgil, Georgics, ii, 42-43. For the sanctuary before its transforma- tion by Julius II, D. Tassotti, 'Ipotesi sui primitivi sviluppi del santuario di Loreto', Quaderni dell'istituto di storia dell'architettura, serie xxiii, 1976, pp. 47-70.

31 The only statue of a woman recorded by historians of Tolentino is now in the hallway of the Palazzo Sangallo (P1. 35a). The inscription below, which is modern, reads: ANNA/GALERIA FAUSTINA/ IMPERATORIS/ANTONINI UXOR. Lit: G. Colucci, Antichith Picene, v, Fermo 1789, pp. 240-I and Io, Fermo 1791, p. 71: C. Santini, Saggio di memorie della citta di Tolentino, Macerata 1789, pp. 37-39, who illustrates it in Tav. A at the end of his book (P1. 35b).

GIOVANNI DA TOLENTINO AND ANTIQUITIES OF ROME 25I corpora ostenderunt incorrupta adhuc, necnon Nicolai proavi mei hispidum cor.32 Inter Auxi- mum et Tollentinum dirrutae urbis vestigia videntur: muros Regini accolae appellant. Ego nusquam loci huius memoriam reperio nisi Ricinensium oppidum fuerit.33 Tu quando plura annotasti de hoc aliquid ad me scribas velim. Per Umbriam proficiscens Spoletum cum applicuis- sem, vetustissimum delubrum ingressus, giganteum bellum in basse marmorea vidi. Miratus sum diu Olimpum montem Pelio atque Ossae subiectum, Iovis dexteram fulmine armatam:34 in alia basse Iovem in Ida educatum, amadriades pueri vagitum tintinabulis et choreis cohibentes; in sepulcro vero quodam hominum cum leonibus pugnas: damnatorum poenam fuisse arbitror qui in harena feris obiecti spectaculo Romanis erant.35 In Interamnae autem urbis foro tabula posita est marmorea in qua latine sic legitur: PROVIDEN- TIA TIBERII CAESARIS AUGUSTI AD AETERNITATEM IPSIUS ET ROMANI

NOMINIS DEDIT.S3 Quaedam etiam sunt notae quas interpretari nunquam potui . . . (Rome). His dictis urbem haud sine reverentia ingressus ad divi Angeli arcem primum tetendi, altitudine murorum, lapide praeduro et Tyberi latus preterlabente fere inexpugnabilem. Hadriani molem fuisse plurimi asserunt, quod ut credam faciunt nomina imperatorum quae in arcis latere incisa sunt, Hadriani, S. Antonini et Commodi. In culmine turris angelus dextera gladium tenet, quod miraculum tunc deus omnipotens ostendit quum subito sternutamento mortui homines concidebant."7 Ab eadem arce ad divi Petri templum usque concamerata tendit via.38 Extant Romuli et Remi (ut aiunt) pira- mides.39 Inveni Capitolium, Tarpeium Saxum,

I think the identification of the statue seen by Giovanni with the statue in the Palazzo Sangallo is certain, despite the fact that Santini says that it was discovered only in 50o8. There is no trace of the plaque put up by Pomponius (not in CIL ix, pp. 530ff.); nor have I discovered anything about the attempt to buy the statue. As far as I know the statue is not recorded in any of the standard works on Roman Imperial portraiture.

82The three bodies are SS. Catervo, Septimia Severina and Basso, which were placed in a great sarcophagus in the Duomo (G. M. Gabrielli, Isarcofagi paleocristiani e altomedioevali delle Marche, Ravenna 196 1, p. II5ff.) Santini (op. cit. n. 31 above, p. 52) reports that in May 1455 the Consiglio opened the sarcophagus and found three bodies. Giovanni could not have seen San Nicola's heart, because it was never taken out of his body: and it is unlikely that he had seen the body which had been lost since the I4thcentury, and located only in 1926 (Bibliotheca Sanctorum, ix, Rome 1967, cols. 961-2): the heart must therefore be that of the mercenary Niccol6 da Tolentino-which was 'presso gli Agostiniani' in Litta's day (i.e. at San Nicola)-and is now in the Museo Civico (V. Spreti, Enciclopedia storico-nobiliare Italiana, iv, Milan p931, p. 5oo).

38 The 'urbis vestigia' are the remains of Helvia Ricina, now Villa Potenza near Macerata, of which the most prominent is the fragmentary Roman theatre (R. V. Inglieri, 'Ii teatro romano di Helvia Ricina,' Dionisio, vii, 1939, pp. Io4-9). The town was known variously as H. R., Ricina, Ricinenses, Ager Recinensis (CIL, ix, p. 547).

a4 From Horace, Odes III, iv, 52 (Pelion on Olympus) or Virgil, Georgics i, 281ff. (probably the latter) 'ter pater exstructos disiecitfulmine montis.'

3r I have not found any trace of the first two pieces in the literature, nor discovered which 'delubrum' he had entered. The third item, a sarcophagus showing men and lions fighting, was in the atrium of the Palazzo Campello and is now fixed to a wall of the Piazza del Duomo where it is used as a fountain-bowl (B. Toscano, Spoleto in pietre, Spoleto 1963, p. 22: U. Tarchi, L'arte etrusco-romano nell'Umbria e nella Sabinia, Milan 1936, pl. 240). Giovanni's observation that the subject of the sarcophagus was a circus- spectacle is probably wrong: it is no doubt a lion-hunt involving men on horseback and on foot.

86 Now in the Museo Civico (CIL, xi, 2, no. 4170c): PROVIDENTIAE TI. CAESARIS AUGUSTI NATI AD AETERNITATEM ROMANI NOMINIS SUBLATO HOSTE PERNICIOSISSIMO P.R. FAUSTUS TITIUS LIBERALIS VI VIR AUG. ITER P.S.F.C. Giovanni omitted NATI after Augustus, invented the two words after AETERNI- TATEM and expanded TI to TIBERIUS.

37 (i) Giovanni is referring to three inscriptions. The first is the dedication set up by Antoninus Pius to Hadrian and Sabina in 139 (CIL, vi, I, no. 984: it probably disappeared during the renovations of Alexander VI): (ii) the sepulchral inscription for Antoninus Pius of 161 (CIL loc. cit., no. 986, which may have suffered the same fate) (iii) the sepulchral inscription of Commodus of 192 (CIL, loc. cit. no. 992; still in position in the time of Gamucci in 1565: see C. Cecchelli, 'Documenti per la storia antica e medioevale di Castel S. Angelo', Archivio della Societd romana di storia patria, lxxiv, 1951, PP. 47-49: C. D'Onofrio, Castel S. Angelo, Rome 1971, p. i9, n. 6) Giovanni's recollection of the inscriptions is inaccurate. Only the first can lead him to the conclusion that the story about the Castel S. Angelo being the mausoleum of Hadrian is true. The other two inscriptions are not relevant to confirming the truth of the story.

(ii) When Gregory the Great was praying for relief from a plague afflicting Rome, the angel appeared above the castle and sheathed his sword, which signalled the end of it. Sneezing was a symptom of the disease: see, for example, Giovanni Cavallini's account of the miracle in his Polistoria, in Cod. Top. iv, p. 48. For the legend, C. D'Onofrio, cit., p. 94ff. 3 The 'concamerata via' is the corridor on the 'passetto' that stretches from the castle to the Vatican: C. D'Onofrio, cit. n. 37 above, pp. 63, 103, 203, 208-9, 217, 257.

89 (i) The Meta Romuli or Sepulchrum Scipionis were the names given to a pyramidal monument that stood between the Castel Sant'Angelo and the Vatican: S. B. Platner and T. Ashby, A topographical dictionary of ancient Rome, Oxford 1929 (hereafter Platner-Ashby), p. 340 give the sources: on its location, see esp. C. Huelsen, 'I1l Gaianum e la Naumachia Vaticana', Dissertazioni della Pontificia Accademia Romana, viii, 1903, pp. 383-7; drawings up to I6oo, B. M. Peebles, 'La "Meta Romuli" e una lettera di M. Ferno', Atti della Pontificia Accademia Romana di archaeologia, Rendiconti, series 3, xi, 1935, pp. 2 1-63. It was partially demolished in 1499 to make way for the Via Borgo Nuovo. Fragments were still in evidence in 1521: R. Lanciani, Storia degli scavi di Roma e notizie intorno alle collezioni

252 NOTES AND DOCUMENTS

Valeriique Publicolae domus vestigia, locum in quo Septa fuerunt,40 ac a sinistro Capitolii latere Lupam pueros geminos lactantem,41 Neronis et Agrippinae monumenta;42 in atrio quod Senatoris vocant Herculem auratum clava leonem mactan- tern,43 Iovem tonantem, Venerem pariter et

Cupidinem nudos, Castorem et Pollucem, Apoli- nem ex alabastrite,44 et Claudium, aereum Commodi defractum colossum.45 In triclinio nudus homo spinam e pede eruens columna sedet, opus adeo mirabile ut propius accesserim visurus an marmorea loqueretur imago. Nullum sane marmor aesve mollius illo exculptum nostris invenitur temporibus.46 Fui in Circo Maximo, in Vespasiani amphitheatro quod Colliseum appe-

romane di antichitd, 4 vols., Rome i902-1912 (hereafter Lanciani, Scavi), i, pp. 126, I61, 186-9. (ii) The Meta Remi is the monument of C. Cestius, known in the Middle Ages as the Sepulcrum Remi: see Platner-Ashby n. 39 above, p. 478 and Fienga, n. 18 above, p. 277.

40 (i) The claim that he had seen the remains of the house of Valerius Publicola is certainly false. No such remains are known to archaeologists; doubtless he derived his mention of the house from Livy ii, 7 (Platner-Ashby (n. 39 above), p. 196, n. 3). The house was eventually built 'infra Veliam', and I5th- and I6th-century authors had only a rough idea where that was: see, for example, Biondo, Roma instaurata, in Cod. Top. iv, pp. 3 14-15 and L. Mauro, Le antichith de la cittd di Roma, Venice p556, p. 5. (ii) The Saepta were excavated in the last century (Platner-Ashby pp. 460- 461).

41 The Wolf stood in front of the Lateran Palace in he Middle Ages, without the two children; H. Stuart

Jones, Catalogue of the ancient sculptures preserved in the municipal collections of Rome: the sculptures of the Palazzo dei Conservatori, Oxford 1926 (hereafter Stuart Jones), pp. 57-58. It was removed to the Palazzo dei Con- servatori in 1471 as part of the Donation of Sixtus IV. Two points arise from Giovanni's allusion to the statue: (i) he says that it was 'a sinistro Capitoli latere', so it must be assumed that he was standing with his back to the Palazzo dei Senatori, with the Palazzo dei Conservatori on his left. The same applies to his mention of the monuments of Nero and Agrippina. (ii) F. Albertini (Opusculum de mirabilibus urbis Romae, Rome 151o, in Cod. Top. iv, p. 491) is the first source after Giovanni to note the presence of the twins; and the assumption, supported by stylistic considerations, has been that they were added between 1471 and 1510 (see, for example, A. Venturi, 'Romolo e Remo di A. Pollaiolo nella lupa capitolina', L'Arte, xxii, 1919, P. 153 and S. Ortolani, II Pollaiuolo, Milan 1948, p. 21o). Giovanni's mention cannot be taken as reliable evidence that the twins had been added before 1490, because there are various inaccuracies in his account of the statues of the Capitol: e.g. he describes Hercules as 'killing the lion with a club' which is not true. Possibly he had remembered classical descrip- tions of the wolf and twins such as Livy X, xxiii, I2 where the Ogulnii 'simulacra infantium conditorum urbis sub uberibus posuerunt': cf. Cicero, De divina- tione, I, xii, 20 and II, xx, 45: Dio Cassius XXXVII, ix, 1-2.

For general accounts of the Donation of Sixtus IV, see W. S. Heckscher, Sixtus IV aeneas insignes statuas Romano populo restituendas censuit, Utrecht 1953 (in Dutch, but with English summary); and H. Sieben- hiiner, Das Kapitol in Rom, Munich 1954, PP. 37ff.

42 The monuments to Nero and Agrippina were funerary monuments set up for Germanicus's wife, Agrippina, and his eldest son, Nero Caesar. They were used as measures for grain and salt in the Middle Ages. For the Roman inscriptions, CIL, vi, i, nos. 886-7: I3th-cent. inscriptions in V. Forcella, Iscrizioni delle chiese e d'altri edificii di Roma, i, Rome 1869, p. 54, no. i3o: illustrated by J. J. Boissard, Topographia Romae, iii, Frankfurt 1597, PP. 96-98.

43 The colossal bronze Hercules found in the time of

Sixtus IV when the Ara Maxima was discovered was set up in the Palazzo dei Conservatori to the right of the courtyard on a high base (Stuart Jones p. 284 for the literature).

44There seem to be no other references to these statues in the Capitoline collections in the I 5th century. Giovanni may have dredged up the Jove from his memory of Pliny, N.H., xxxiv, 79: 'Leochares . . . (made) Iovemque illum tonantem in Capitolio ante cuncta laudabilem', or Cicero, In Catilinam iii, 2o.

45 Giovanni cannot remember the difference between marble and bronze: he thinks the Spinario was marble, the Horsetamers bronze. When he speaks of a colossal Commodus we cannot tell whether he meant: (i) the fragments of the marble statue of Constantine found in the Basilica of Constantine in 1486 and placed in the courtyard of the Palazzo dei Conservatori (T. Buddensieg,'Die Konstantinbasilika in einer Zeichnung Francescos di Giorgio und der Marmorkoloss Konstan- tins des Grossen,' Miinchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst, xiii, 1962, pp. 37-48). It was known as Commodus (e.g. by Fra Mariano, see Fra Mariano da Firenze, Itinerarium Urbis Romae, ed. P. E. Bulletti, Rome 1931, p. 28): (ii) the fragments of a bronze statue of Constans I comprising the left hand, head and globe which stood in front of the Lateran Palace and was also known sometimes as Commodus (Stuart Jones p. 171, nos. 2 and 3, p. 173, no. 7 and p. 174, no. 9). The punctuation given here is that of Giovanni's text. If it were re-punctuated ' . . . et Claudium aereum, Com- modi defractum colossum' he would be refering to both colossi, which would eradicate the difficulty that there is not known to have been a bronze statue of Claudius on the Capitol in 1490. The name is no problem, because a man who is capable of calling the Marcus Aurelius Mark Anthony (see n. 51 below) is also capable of calling Constans, or rather Commodus, Claudius.

46 The Spinario was first mentioned by Magister Gregorius, and the way in which he introduces it ('etiam aliud') after the accounts of the Marcus Aurelius and Constans I suggests that it too was outside the Lateran Palace in the Middle Ages (see G. M. Rushforth, 'Magister Gregorius de mirabilibus urbis Romae: a new description of Rome in the I 2th century,' Journal of Roman Studies, ix, I9I9, PP. 23-24 and p. 49; cf. Rabbi Benjamin, in P. Borchhardt, 'The sculpture in front of the Lateran as described by Benjamin of Tudela and Magister Gregorius', Journal of Roman Studies, xxvi, 1936, pp. 68-70). It was subsequently removed to the Palazzo dei Conservatori, no doubt as part of the Donation of Sixtus IV in 1471. It is interesting to know that in 1490 it was placed on a column. Giovanni's reference to its being in the dining- room is new. The room was probably upstairs in the Palace, for the statue is next described c. 1500 by the Anonimo Prospettivo as being 'above' the bronze foot in the courtyard (Stuart Jones p. 47 for subsequent history: representations listed by W. S. Hecksher, Reallexikon zur deutschen Kunstgeschichte, iv, Stuttgart 1958, cols. 289-99).

GIOVANNI DA TOLENTINO AND ANTIQUITIES OF ROME 253 Ilant, mira aequidem loci magnitudo in qua totus populus Romanus ludos olim spectavit. Mirabilior vero parietum structura, marmoreis porticibus insculpta sunt Herculis gesta praeclara; exolevit nunc omne aurum quo lita quondam fuere.41 Vidi et marmoeras Traiani Antoninique columnas in quibus insignes eorum victoriae ita mirabiliter celatae sunt ut mirantium expleri nunquam possit animus.48 Domitiani item naumachiam49 et Claudii aquarum ductus quos qui diligentius consideraverit, nil magis in toto orbe mirandum censebit quippe a xl lapide ad eam excelsitatem influxere fontes ut in omnes urbis montes levaren- tur.50 Ibi est aerea Marci Antonii equestris statua, inter ceteras porro praestantissima, atque non parum omni ex parte collaudata. Ea est enim effigies, ea membrorum compactio ut nihil addi posse videatur." Inde in Carinas redeuntibus

Vicus Sceleratus aspicitur, ubi Tulia carpentum per patris corpus egit.52 A quo haud longe fuit quondam Pompeiana domus, de qua mentionem facit Suetonius in Tiberio.53 In arcus tris trium- phales oculos converti quibus Titi Augusti, Septimi Commodi fratris, et Constantini magnifi- cae res gestae comprehenduntur. Prope ibi est Forum Boarium, Traiani et Antonini aedium ruinae,54 Templum Pacis a Vespasiano constitu- tum in quo ex basalte lapide columnae maximi olim praetii prostratae iacent; in vestibulo cupa grandis ex porphirite; alia est in Neronis hortis ubi aurea domus sita fuerat.66 Obeliscos (ut

47 There were no relief-statues on the entrances to the Colosseum, so possibly Giovanni is talking about the stucco decoration, although the use of the verb 'insculpere' would be inappropriate. The stucco-work is discussed by N. Dacos, 'Les stucs du Colise6: vestiges archdologiques et dessins de la Renaissance,' Latomus, xxi, 1962, pp. 334-55, but none of the drawings appears to show the deeds of Hercules. Dacos p. 345 observed that there is a fragment in passage 39 showing the lower part of a muscular man leaning on a staff, which could be Hercules. This or connected decoration could conceivably be what Giovanni saw, but it involves stretching the word 'porticus' to include the passage as well.

48 Fienga (n. i8 above), p. 281 for representations. 4 Giovanni cannot have seen the 'Naumachia

Domitiani' since it existed only in literary sources in his day (e.g. Suetonius, Domitian, iv). It is possible that he had heard of, or been to, the part of Rome called the 'Regio naumachiae' in the Middle Ages where parts of the building now known as the 'Nau- machia Vaticana' were found in I743. This building may be identical with the 'Naumachia Domitiani'. The area concerned was north-west of the Castel S. Angelo (Huelsen, op. cit. n. 39 above, p. 355f. and esp. 374f.: see also T. Ashby, Topographical studies in Rome in 1581. A series of views with a fragmentary text by Etienne du Pirac, London 1916, p. 143).

60 From Pliny, N.H., xxxvi, 122: 'Vicit antecedentes aquarum ductus novissimum impendium operis incohati a C. Cesare et peracti a Claudio, quippe a xl lapide ad eam excelsitatem, ut omnes urbis montes lavarentur, influxere Curtius atque Caeruleus fontes et Anienovus ...' N.B. Giovanni's 'in... levarentur.'

61 For 'membrorum compactio', cf. Cicero, De fin., V, xi, 33: for 'ut nihil .. ,' cf. Horace, Epistolae, I, xii, 5-6. The 'ibi' is accurate. The Aqua Claudia split south of the Porta Maggiore, and a branch of it, called the 'Arcus Neroniani' or 'Caelemontani Aquae Claudiae', passed through the Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano where the statue stood in 1490 (T. Ashby, The Aqueducts of Ancient Rome, Oxford 1935, PP. 244-9). The rider, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, was often identified in the Middle Ages as Constantine and occasionally as Lucius Verus, Theoderic or Quintus Curtius (A. Graf, Roma nella memoria e nella immagina- zione del Medio Evo, Turin 1915, PP 455f. and E. Rodocanachi, Le Capitole romain antique e moderne, Paris I904, PP 74f.). Giovanni's identification of the rider with Mark Anthony is evidently unique. I have retained 'Antonii' and do not think it likely that it is a

slip for 'Antonini'. It is probable that Giovanni had never heard of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus because when he describes the della Valle collection (p. 254 below) he mentions together statues of 'Marcus Antonius' and 'Faustina': this must have been the Emperor M. A. Aurelius with either his sister, Faustina the Elder, or his wife, Faustina the Younger. There is a corrigendum at the end of Giovanni's Epistolae and neither reading is altered. I do not think it likely that Giovanni would have let through what he regarded as the same mistake twice in different contexts: therefore he did not regard them as mistakes and believed that Marcus Antonius was involved in both cases.

Representations: C. Huelsen, La Roma antica di Ciriaco d'Ancona, Rome 1907, PP. 28-29 and B. Degen- hart and A. Schmitt, 'Gentile da Fabriano in Rom und die Anflinge des Antikenstudiums,' Miinchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst, xi, 1960 (hereafter Degenhart and Schmitt), p. 124, no. I I: P. Fehl, 'The placement of the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius in the Middle Ages', this Journal, XXXVI, 1974, PP. 362-7.

52 From Livy i, 48: Foedum inhumanumque inde traditur scelus monumentoque locus est. 'Sceleratum Vicus' vocant, quo amens agitantibus furiis sororis ac viri Tullia per patris corpus carpentum egisse fertur. See Platner-Ashby (n. 39 above), p. 124.

63Suetonius, Tiberius xv, I: 'Romam reversus (Tiberius) deducto in Forum filio Druso statim e Carinis ac Pompeiana domo Esquilias in hortos Maecenatianos transmigravit ...' The house was on the Carinae near the Temple of Tellus (Platner-Ashby (n. 39 above), pp. 187-8, no. i). Giovanni's reading of Suetonius must have been assiduous to have picked up such a fleeting reference.

64 (i) Forum Boarium: Platner-Ashby (n. 39 above), pp. 223-4. Knowledge of the extent of the Forum was very hazy in the 1490s. Giuliano da Sangallo, for example, drew what is evidently a corner of the Basilica Emilia and described it as being there (Cod. Barb. 4424, fol. 26r: cf. fol. 7 Iv). Only a small part had been excavated by 1490 and had produced the bronze Hercules placed in the Palazzo dei Conservatori: see H. Lyngby, Beitrdge zur Topographie des Forum-Boarium- Gebietes in Rom, Lund 1954, PP. 7ff., which includes a useful collection of literary references on pp. 155-8. (ii) Traiani ... ruinae: probably the Baths of Caracalla and the Baths of Trajan, though it is curious to use the word 'aedes' of them.

566 'Templum pacis' was the medieval name for the Basilica of Constantine used, for example, by Poggio Bracciolini (Cod. Top. iv, p. 234), Giovanni Rucellai (Cod. Top. iv, p. 416), Bernardo Rucellai (Cod. Top. iv, p. 446) and Fra Mariano (op. cit. n. 45 above, p. 27). For the legends about it, N. Muffel, Beschreibung .... Cod. Top. iv, p. 336 and Graf, op. cit. n. 51 above, pp. 253-5. The most famous of the columns was one

254 NOTES AND DOCUMENTS

Plinius refert) tres inveni, primum ad divi Petri templum, quem Augustus pro gnomone habuit. Apici pila aurea inheret quam Manlius mathe- maticus addidit.6Y In medio litterae istae sunt: DIVO AUGUSTO IULII CAESARIS FILIO SACRUM. Secundus est apud Minervam aegip- tiis litteris inscriptam continens rerum naturae interpretationem. Tertius in Vaticano Caii et Neronis principum circo, ex omnibus unus in molitione effractus.57 Iter deinde ad Dioclitiani thermas direximus, tantae sublimitatis aedificia, ut humanum visum haebetent.68 Ibi magnum est baptisterium, hyemales aestivalesque zetae, privata et publica balnea, sublimes ex solido lapide columnae, ingens ex porphirite crater, in quo fons scaturiebat.59 Nec vero praeterire possum Pan- theon ab Agrippa constitutum. Syracusana sunt in eo columnarum capita, ex ophite et porphirite; porta aerea valde emicans, cinctum triplici columnarum ordine vestibulum e quibus non- nullae sunt striatae. Ad Praxitelica etiam Phidiacaque opera visenda properavi. Equi duo aerei absque sessore stant quibus subiecta sunt

artificum nomina.60 Soloque sedent totidem marmorei gigantes cornua copiae tenentes, quae omnia divina manu fabricata iudicans, maxima cum ammiratione discessi.61 Tumrn civis quidam Romanus: 'Quid si in privatorum quoque aedibus non inferiora fortasse his quae publice vidisti offenderes? Ego Hercle pauca habeo quae iam videbimus.' Domum igitur intrantes satiris duobus auro coruscantibus occurrimus.62 Pluri- mas deinceps virorum et mulierum statuas sumus conspicati; inter quas Marcum Antonium et Faustinam cognovimus. In tabula marmorea calendarium; cursusque solaris ratio continetur.63

that was put in the Piazza S. Maria Maggiore in 1613. For representations of the Baths: T. Ashby, op. cit. n. 49 above, pp. Io5f. and Giovanni Antonio Dosio, Roma antica e i disegni di architettura, ed. F. Borsi et al., Rome 1976, pp. 51-52. The bowl that Giovanni saw may be in a drawing attributed to Fra Giocondo by Geymuller, bearing the inscription 'co-a', i.e. conca (R. Lanciani, 'Quatre dessins inedits de la collection Destailleur relatifis aux ruines de Rome', Milanges d'archiologie et d'histoire, xi, 1891, pp. I6If. and pl. iv). The other bowl may be in another drawing attributed to Fra Giocondo (Lanciani, op. cit. above, pp. I64f. and pl. I i), drawn later by Pirro Ligorio (Bodley MS Canon. Ital. 138, fol. I I 9r in T. Ashby, 'The Bodleian MS of Pirro Ligorio', Journal of Roman Studies, ix, 1 9 9, p. 18o). Both have disappeared. 66 Giovanni says that Manlius Mathematicus devised the Gnomon, whereas modern texts give the name 'Facundus Novus'. Giovanni was following the contemporary texts of Pliny e.g. the Venice edition, 1472 and 1487; cf. the Venice translation of 1487. The tradition persisted into the I8th century; M. Michele, for example, in De gli obelischi di Roma, Rome 1589, p. 237, recorded the opinion that Manlius was identical with Manilius, which may be how the name was smuggled into the MS tradition in the first place. G. Z. Dano, De origine et usu obeliscorum, Rome 1797, p. 17, assembled the variants.

67 The Vatican obelisk is unbroken. Giovanni did not notice this and followed contemporary texts of Pliny in saying that it was the only one 'completely broken during its removal'. P. Kiinzle has suggested re-punctuating Pliny's text to eradicate this difficulty: 'Tertius est Romae in Vaticano Gai et Neronis principum circo. Ex omnibus omnino fractus est in molitione . . .; etc. (reported by F. Castagnoli, 'I1 circo di Nerone in Vaticano', Rendiconti della Pontificia Accademia Romana di archaeologia, xxxii, 1959/60, pp. 99-100oo).

58 'Visum haebetent' may be derived from Virgil, Aeneid, ii, 605 or Pliny, N.H., xxxvii, ioi.

59 The columns had always excited comment: see Giovanni Rucellai, Della bellezza e anticaglia di Roma, in Cod. Top. iv, p. 414, and B. Rucellai, De urbe Roma in Cod. Top. iv, p. 449.

60 The Dioscuri were on the Quirinal in 1490: (A. Michaelis, 'Monte Cavallo', Mitteilungen des kaiserlich deutschen archaeologischen Instituts, xiii, 1898, pp. 248-74: P. G. Hilbner, 'Detailstudien zur Geschichte der antiken Roms in der Renaissance', Mitteilungen . ., xxvi, 191, pp. 318-22: Degenhart and Schmitt, pp. 127-8, no. 16). We must doubt that Giovanni had seen the group. He knew that the names of the supposed authors were inscribed below the statues, but anybody in Rome could have told him that. He mistakenly says that the horses were bronze, and to say that they 'ab ... sessore stant' is curious. The Latin is presumably intended to mean that 'they stand away from the rider', which implies that Giovanni thought that there was only one horse-tamer.

61 The statues of the River-Gods were close to the Dioscuri in 1490: fully dealt with by Michaelis, op. cit. n. 6o above, pp. 254-6; and Degenhart and Schmitt, pp. 126 and 128: add the mention of them by Angelo Decembrio in M. Baxandall, 'A dialogue on art from the court of Lionello d'Este', this Journal, XXVI, 1963, p. 313-

62 When and where they were found is unknown, but at least one had come to light by 1474, for the earliest datable representation of either of them occurs in the border decoration of the title-page of an MS version of D. Calderini's commentary on Juvenal, written in Rome in that year by Bartolomeo Sanvito (Florence, Biblioteca Laurenziana, MS Plut. 53, 2, fol. 3). The Pan is the first figure on the right at the top: see M. Meiss, Mantegna as illuminator, Glickstadt-Hamburg 1957, p. 64 and fig. 70: see also J. Wardrop, The script of Humanism, Oxford 1963, p. 30: M. Salmi, La miniatura italiana, Milan 1955, P. 42, suggests that the artist was Bernardo Parentino. The Mantegnesque drawing from the Destailleur Collection may be earlier: P. G. Hiibner, op. cit. n. 6o above, p. 316. For further information: H. Stuart Jones, A catalogue * . .: The sculptures of the Museo Capitolino, Oxford 19I2, pp. 22 and 25: A. Michaelis, 'R8mische Skizzenbficher nordischer Kiinstler des XVI jahrhunderts,' Jahrbuch des kaiserlich deutschen archiiologischen Instituts, vi, 1891, p. 237, no. 175: N. Dacos, Le logge di Raffaello, Rome 1977, pp. 26o-I.

68 CIL i, p. 338-9 and vi, no. 2306: there are drawings of it in the following: the Codex Coner, fol. 48 (see T. Ashby, 'Sixteenth-century drawings of Roman buildings attributed to Andreas Coner', Papers of the British School in Rome, ii, 1904, pp. 33-34); Codex Pighianus, fols. I77r, I78r-v and I79r-v ('in domo H. de Valle': none of these sheets is in Jahn): Codex Coburgensis, see F. Matz, 'Qber eine dem Herzog von Coburg-Gotha geh6rige Sammlung alter Handzeichnungen nach Antiken', Monatsbericht der kaniglich Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, 1871, p. 478, no. 134: S. Reinach, L'album de

GIOVANNI DA TOLENTINO AND ANTIQUITIES OF ROME 255 In medio areae Neptunus extat, tridente aequora quassans; contra quem Appollo cythara modulans carmen; Arion delphino sedens; Castor Poluxque, Baccanalia, munus gladiatorium. Nero Aeno- barbus, venationesque nonnullae, variaeque animalium species in collibus errantium.4 . . .6 Quatriduo Romae acto per Etruscos reditus fuit.

S. . Superato Appenini iugo Transpadana ora perragrata in patriam redivimus.

Vale; Mediolani xii Kal. Decem. MCCCCLXXXX.

Pierre Jacques, Paris 1902, fols. 42v43: Boissard, op. cit. n. 42 above, I, p. 43 and 3, fols. 140-142.

64The following statues mentioned by Giovanni may be identical to pieces known to have been in the various della Valle collections in the I6th century: (i) Marcus Aurelius and Faustina: see n. 51 above for the reading in Giovanni's text: cf. Michaelis (cit. n. 62 above) p. 236, nos. 172 and 174: (ii) Neptune: cf. Michaelis p. 229, no. 22: (iii) Apollo: cf. Michaelis p. 230, no. 52: (iv) Arion: cf. Michaelis p. 236, no. 168.

Translation (for nn. 23-64 see pp. 250-5) : (Giovanni begins the letter by apologizing to Taccone for the delay in writing about his trip to Loreto) ... So, in explaining the journey it seems to me worthwhile if I describe briefly and in passing the towns and rivers, and finally, in a more expansive manner, the ruins of Rome.23 I shall write about all of these things, if not elegantly, then as accurately as I can. On I Ith March I made my way to Lodi, Cremona and Reggio and soon, by way of the via Flaminia, I passed through Modena, Bologna, Imola, Faenza, Forlf, Bertinoro and Cesena. I saw nothing memorable in these towns although they are very ancient, except at Modena, the tombs of Brutus and Cassius and of a certain Clodia Plotina, who was, they say, a freed-woman of Cato's.24 I crossed the Rubicon and came to Rimini, Pesaro and Fano. At Rimini I went across the marble bridge built by Julius Caesar. In the piazza in the centre of the city a fountain comes up and is caught in a large basin. There I saw a triumphal arch,25 and another, somewhat loftier, at Fano, which the citizens had built in honour of the goddess.26 A mile further on is the crossing of the Metauro where the celebrated slaughter of the Carthaginians took place when their leader, Hasdrubal, had been killed. I saw the mound which the Romans built to commemorate the action; today it is called Scapizano.27 I also went to Senigallia and the port of Ancona which is the most spectacular on the coast. In the port the tower built by Antoninus Pius still stands, the entrance of which is sur- rounded by a huge stone structure.28 After this I arrived at Osimo, a very ancient and wealthy city remarkable for the marble walls on all sides on which elegantly inscribed Greek and Latin letters can be read practically everywhere. In this town there are a great many Roman statues and temples.29 Eventually I came to the church of the Virgin at Loreto, which is truly awesome because its shrine does not allow itself to be touched by any

buildings. The rest of the temple is like a fortress and is provided with high towers and enormous walls. The number of miracles which the sacred Virgin, the benign Mother of God, has brought about in her pity for the misfortunes of mankind is so great that I could not go through them all if I had a hundred tongues and the same number of mouths.30 I went from there to my home-town, Tolentino . . . (Giovanni praises Tolentino, particularly its form of government) . . . While I was looking at everything, I noticed a statue of a woman made of alabaster in the piazza, which everybody reckoned was very valuable. The Duke of Urbino and a certain cardinal wanted to buy it and were offering a good price for it. The people of Tolentino refused because they knew perfectly well the prestige it brought their town. There is also a marble plaque inscribed with Greek and Latin letters which was set up by Pomponius, a legate of consular rank.31 Then they showed me the bodies of three saints, which had not yet decomposed, and the grisly heart of my ancestor, Niccol6.32 Between Osimo and Tolentino can be seen the remains of a destroyed city: the local people call them the walls of Regino. I cannot remember anything about this place except that it might have been Helvia Ricina.3s I would like you to write something to me when you have come across more about this. When I arrived at Spoleto on my way through Umbria I went into a very ancient temple and saw a Battle of the Giants on a marble base. I gazed in admiration for a long time at Mount Olympus subjected to Pelion and Ossa, and the right hand of Jove armed with a thunderbolt;34 on another base was Jove being brought up on Ida and hamadryads drowning the boy's crying with bells and dancing; on a certain tomb there were fights of men with lions; I suppose that this was the punishment of condemned men who were pitted against wild beasts in the arena as enter- tainment for the Romans.35 In the piazza at Terni is a marble plaque with the following Latin inscription: PROVIDENTIA TIBERII CAESA- RIS AUGUSTI AD AETERNITATEM IPSIUS ET ROMANI NOMINIS DEDIT.36 There were also some marks which I was never able to understand ... (There follows a short and highly rhetorical panegyric on Rome) . . . This said, I entered Rome filled with awe and made my way first to the Castel Sant'Angelo, which is practically impregnable because of the height of its walls, the hardness of the stone and the fact that the Tiber glides along its sides. Most people say that it was the tomb of Hadrian, which I can believe because of the names of the emperors which are cut on the side of the fort, Hadrian, S. Antoninus and Commodus. On the top of the tower an angel holds a sword in his right hand, a miracle revealed by the almighty God at a time when men were being struck dead with sudden sneezing.37 A vaulted passage goes from the fortress as far as St. Peter's.s8 The so-called pyramids of Romulus and Remus are still extant.39 I found the Capitol,

256 NOTES AND DOCUMENTS

the Tarpeian Rock, and the remains of the house of Valerius Publicola, the place where the voting enclosure was;40 and on the left side of the Capitol the Wolf suckling the Twins41 and the Monuments of Nero and Agrippina;42 in the courtyard called (the Courtyard) of the Senator a gilt Hercules killing the lion with a club,43 Jove the Thunderer, a Venus and Cupid, both naked, Castor and Pollux, an alabaster Apollo,44 a Claudius, and a broken colossal bronze statue of Commodus.46 In the banqueting hall a naked man pulling a thorn from his foot sits on a column, a work so life-like that I went closer to see whether the marble image would speak. Indeed there exists nowadays no marble or bronze carved more delicately than that.46 I was in the Circus Maximus and in the Amphitheatre of Vespasian which is known as the Colosseum; the size of the place, in which the whole of the Roman people once watched the games, is amazing. The con- struction of the walls is even more remarkable; the famous Labours of Hercules are carved on the marble porticoes, (but) now all the gold with which they were once gilded has disappeared.47 I saw too the marble columns of Trajan and Antoninus on which their victories are so beauti- fully carved that the minds of those admiring them can never have their fill;48 also the Nau- machia ofDomitian49 and the Claudian aqueducts, which, to anyone who has thought carefully about it, are more remarkable than anything else in the world, for the waters flow in from forty miles away at such a height that they can be raised to all the hills of the city.6o There is the bronze equestrian statue of Marcus Antonius which is by far the most distinguished example of its kind and much praised from every point of view. So fine is the composition of the limbs that it seems that nothing could be added.61 Returning from there to the Carinae you can see the Vicus Sceleratus where Tullia drove a carriage over her father's body.52 Not far from there was the house once owned by Pompey which Suetonius mentions in his Life of Tiberius.63 I turned my gaze to the three triumphal arches on which the magnificent achievements of Titus Augustus, Septimus, brother of Commodus, and Constantine are shown. Near- by is the Forum Boarium, the ruins of the Temples of Trajan and Antoninus*" and the Temple of Peace built by Vespasian in which basalt columns, once immensely valuable, lie scattered about; in the entrance is a huge porphyry bowl. There is another one in the Gardens of Nero where the

Golden House was.66 I came across three obelisks, as Pliny reports; the first, at St. Peter's, was used by Augustus as a sun-dial. At the top is a golden ball which Manlius the mathematician put there.66 In the middle are these letters: DIVO AUGUSTO IULII CAESARIS FILIO SACRUM. The second is at the Minerva and includes an inter- pretation of the facts of nature written in hiero- glyphics. The third, in the Circus of the emperors Gaius and Nero in the Vatican, was the only one broken when it was transported.P' From there I made my way to the Baths of Diocletian, buildings so sublime that they stun the human mind.58 There is the great bath, the cold and hot rooms, the private and public pools, majestic monolithic columns, and a huge crater of porphyry in which a fountain used to play.69 I really cannot leave out the Pantheon built by Agrippa. The capitals of the columns are made of Syracusan bronze, ophite and porphyry. The door is of brightly shining bronze and the entrance is surrounded by three rows of columns, many of which are fluted. I hurried along to see the works of Praxiteles and Phidias. The bronze horses stand there without a rider, below which are placed the names of their makers.60 On the ground are seated the same number of marble giants holding cornucopiae, which I left full of admiration, having decided that all had been made by a divine hand.6' Then a certain Roman citizen said:- 'What if you came across works in a private house probably not inferior to those you have seen in public? By Hercules, I have a few things that we shall soon see.' Entering the house we came across two satyrs gleaming with gold.62 Then we saw a great number of statues of men and women, of which I recognized Marcus Antonius and Faustina. There is a calendar on a marble slab; it includes calculations of the movements of the sun.63 In the middle of the courtyard is Neptune stirring up the sea with his trident. Opposite him is Apollo playing a tune on the lyre; Arion sitting on a dolphin; Castor and Pollux, a Bacchanalia, a gladiators' fight, Nero Ahenobarbus, many hunting scenes, various kinds of animals wandering around the hills64 ... (Giovanni tells Taccone that he cannot describe everything he saw) . . I spent four days in Rome, then went back through Etruria. . . . Having made the crossing over the Apennine ridge and wended my way through the country across the Po, I arrived back in my own country.

Farewell: Milan, 20 November 1490.

a-Statue of Anna Galeria Faustina the Younger. Tolen- tino, Palazzo Sangallo (p. 250, n. 31)

b-Statue of Anna Galeria Faustina the Younger (from Santini, Saggio . . ., 1789, pl. A) (p. 250, n. 31)

c --Albrecht Ditrer, Melencolia I (p. 257)

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