History of Antiquarianism

This paper explores seventeenth-century antiquarianism through the writings of Richard Rowlands Verstegan, an English Catholic who lived in Antwerp for most of his long life for fear of religious persecution in his home country. The eclectic Verstegan, known primarily for his role in the Catholic Reformation, was a writer, publisher, and antiquary. While much has been written about his contributions to religion and poetry, few scholars have commented upon the significance of Richard Verstegan to the history of science. This study examines his 1605 book, A Restitution of Decayed Intelligence in Antiquities: Concerning the Most Noble and Renowned English Nation, in which he attacked the mythical origins of the British people—which had been linked to Brutus of Troy—and hypothesized instead about their Germanic origin. Verstegan did more than disassociate mythology from human history: he also delved into geology and paleontology with an investigative spirit, challenging some Biblical narratives about Creation and the Flood. He included his own postulations about why marine fossils are found inland in England and the Netherlands and why the Cliffs of Dover resemble the northern coast of France. This paper offers insight into the remarkable Verstegan, and more broadly, how antiquarians approached prehistory in the seventeenth century.

Intraprendente scopritore: è così che Lorenzo Fortunati amava definirsi. Egli è noto soprattutto grazie agli scavi che condusse a Roma tra 1857 e 1858 sulla via Latina dove rinvenne, oltre ad una serie di strutture sepolcrali, anche la basilica di Santo Stefano Protomartire. Il resto delle sue imprese, che interessarono numerose località laziali, è argomento poco noto alla bibliografia archeologica che, salvo sporadiche eccezioni, non ha mai dato giusta considerazione a questo personaggio. La cospicua documentazione archivistica che lo riguarda consente di tracciare la cronistoria delle sue scoperte e di conoscere un uomo dalla vita difficile, alle prese con difficoltà economiche e coinvolto in diatribe con lo Stato Pontificio, con autorità locali e persino con il marchese Giovanni Pietro Campana. Le fotografie d' epoca ed il recupero dei suoi diari di scavo, fanno emergere una personalità estremamente attenta nel dettagliare i siti ed i reperti indagati e consentono altresì di recuperare con testi archeologici oggi dimenticati sotto strati di cemento.

A promising discoverer: that's how Lorenzo Fortunati liked to call himself. He is mainly known due to the excavations he carried out in Rome between 1857 and 1858 on the Via Latina where, in addition to a series of burial structures, he also found the basilica of Santo Stefano Protomartire. The rest of his exploits, which involved numerous localities in Lazio, is little known to the archaeological bibliography which, with sporadic exceptions, has never given due consideration to this character. The conspicuous archival documentation concerning him makes it possible to trace the history of his discoveries and to get to know a man with a difficult life, struggling with economic difficulties and involved in diatribes with the Papal State, with local authorities and even with Marquis Giovanni Pietro Campana. The period photographs and the recovery of his excavation diaries reveal an extremely attentive personality in the details of the sites and finds under investigation and also make it possible to recover archaeological texts now forgotten under layers of concrete.
Marco Erpetti

Year: 2020
Edizione: L'ERMA di BRETSCHNEIDER
Series
Studia Archaeologica, 233
ISBN: 9788891319333
Pages: 160, 30 ill. B/N
Dimensione PDF: 4.45 MB

Le rameau d'or et de science : « F. Ollandivs Apoloni dicavit »

L'histoire commence ainsi : « Dans son livre de dessins des Antigualhas (f. 9r), Francisco de Holanda donne un précieux dessin de l'Apollon du Belvedere. C'était la plus ancienne statue installée par le pape Jules II dans le Cortile delle Statue du Belvedere, avant même le Laocoon. La statue du dieu réintégrait ainsi son temple à Rome qui, croyait-on, se trouvait sur le  «Mons Vaticanum», le «templum apollinis».
Au pied de la statue d'Apollon du Belvedere, Francisco a représenté — et il est le seul à le faire — un rameau de laurier portant les lettres de sa dédicace au dieu "F. OLLANDIVS APOLONI DICAVIT" ».
Je me suis attachée à retrouver l'origine de ce motif, avec la bonne surprise de la trouver dans le Champfleury de Geoffroy Tory. Le sujet est donc à la fois Francisco de Holanda (Lisbonne, 1517-1584), son livre des Antigualhas, aujourd'hui conservé à la bibliothèque de l'Escorial, les livres de sa bibliothèque ou ceux de ses amis, mais aussi l'influence de Geoffroy Tory dans la péninsule ibérique.

English:
The video illustrates the presentation held in Coburg in Germany on September 1, 2017 entitled: "Connection between Antiquarian interests and Renaissance art at the Southern boundaries of the Empire. Trento between the Fifteenth and Sixteenth centuries "as part of the conference "Antikenrezeption in der Frühneuzeit: Geschichtsschreibung und antiquarische Studien in Britannien und dem Reich im Vergleich" organized by Prinz-Albert-Gesellschaft e. V. / Prince-Albert-Society, Coburg and the Landesbiblioteck Coburg.
Italiano:
Il video illustra la presentazione tenuta a Coburg in Germania il 1 settembre 2017 intitolata: “Connection between Antiquarian interests and Renaissance art at the Southern boundaries of the Empire. Trento between the Fifteenth and Sixteenth centuries” nell’ambito del convegno “Antikenrezeption in der Frühneuzeit: Geschichtsschreibung und antiquarische Studien in Britannien und dem Reich im Vergleich“ organizzato dalla Prince Albert Society e dalla Landesbiblioteck Coburg.

Nelle difficoltà dovute alla pandemia 2020 Coronavirus, RaiRadio3 ha chiesto a diversi storici, dell'arte e non solo, di 'inventare' e registrare da casa una 'mostra impossibile' di 20 minuti per riempire alcuni vuoti della programmazione dovuti all'impossibilità di dirette da teatri e sale concerto.
La mia ‘mostra impossibile’ su I Trenta denari di Giuda divenuti reliquie trasmessa venerdì 3 aprile è disponibile per ascoltare e  scaricare in podcast qui https://www.raiplayradio.it/audio/2020/03/RADIO3-SUITE---MAGAZINE-I-Trenta-denari-di-Giuda-con-Lucia-Travaini--367230eb-41af-4e8f-abc4-b8aa08ea1a31.html
Questa ‘mostra impossibile’ anticipa il libro in corso di stampa: I Trenta denari di Giuda. Storia di reliquie impreviste nell’Europa medievale e moderna (Libreria editrice Viella, Roma) https://www.viella.it/libro/9788833133188

**
In the difficult times due to Coronavirus pandemia 2020, RaiRadio3 asked several historians to 'invent' and record from home an “impossible 20-minute exhibition” to fill in some gaps in the programming due to the lack of live concerts, operas etc..

My “impossible exhibition” on The Thirty Pieces of Silver as relics was broadcast on April 3 and is now available to listen and download in podcast here
https://www.raiplayradio.it/audio/2020/03/RADIO3-SUITE---MAGAZINE-I-Trenta-denari-di-Giuda-con-Lucia-Travaini--367230eb-41af-4e8f-abc4-b8aa08ea1a31.html

This “impossible exhibition” anticipates my forthcoming book (in Italian) on The Thirty Pieces of Silver. Story of unexpected relics in medieval and modern Europe (Viella, Rome). https://www.viella.it/libro/9788833133188

This paper discusses the tension between architecture conceived as civic ornament in pre-modern political philosophy and the treatment of architectural ornament within the treatise literature of the Italian Renaissance. The essay focuses this discussion through the topic of spolia, the affixed fragmentary decorations reused or pillaged from other monuments which were structurally extraneous but intrinsic with regard to meaning. Spolia present a narrative of ornament in architecture at variance with the view of ornament as arising from functional necessity but are key to a political reading of architecture; they also permit a deeper discussion of the theme of triumph in Renaissance architecture and the 'triumphal' arch as one if its central types.

Surveying the Chetham Society aims, activities, and publications (since 1843):

◈ Family and Personal Papers
Biographies, Autobiographies, and Genealogies; Family Deeds, Papers, and Letters; and Heralds, Visitations, and Wills.

◈ Religious and Political History
Gentry, Jacobites, and Civil War; Charters, Rolls, and Cartularies; and Parishes, Churches, and Chapels.

◈ Local and County History
Administration, Justice, and Taxation; Rolls, Rentals, and Surveys; and Towns, Districts, and Townships.

◈ Social and Economic History
Economies, Industries, and Societies; Agriculture, Trade, and Transport; and Schools, Pupils, and Education.

A survey and analysis of several annotated copies of the Epigrammata in US libraries.
From The Epigrammata Antiquae Urbis (1521) and Its Influence on European Antiquarianism, ed  Joan Carbonell and Gerard González Germain (preview here)
http://www.lerma.it/index.php?pg=SchedaTitolo&key=00013490

Conservé au Royaume-Uni, à la John Rylands Library de Manchester (cote 17252), le bloc d’imprimerie xylographique que nous étudions dans cet article est de datation incertaine. Pour certains il remonterait au xve siècle et il serait par conséquent le plus ancien outil d’imprimeur en bois que nous conservions. Pour d’autres il aurait été fabriqué siècle xviiie et imiterait l’iconographie médiévale. Faute d’investigations scientifiques plus poussées, la date exacte du bloc de bois ne peut pas être établie. Notre article envisage donc les deux hypothèses de datation au regard la tradition iconographique (l’image gravée sur ce bloc représente une scène de la vie de saint Jean largement inspirée des Apocalypses figurées des xiiie et xive siècles) et de nos connaissances sur l’histoire de ce bloc. Nous examinons ainsi le statut cet objet selon qu’il est un authentique artefact du siècle xve siècle , ou selon qu’il est une imitation du xviiie siècle.

Housed in the United Kingdom, at the John Rylands Library in Manchester (item number 17252), the xylographic printing block that we study in this article has an uncertain date. Some scholars believe that it dates to the fifteenth century and that it is, consequently, the oldest extant woodblock printing apparatus. Other scholars believe that it was made in the eighteenth century and it imitates the medieval iconography. Lacking more scientific investigations, the exact date of the woodblock cannot be established. Our article investigates both possibilities of dating in regard to the iconographic tradition (the carved image on the block represents a scene from the life of St. John, largely inspired by the illustrated Apocalypses of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries) and of our understanding of the block. We examine, therefore, the status of the block as an object that is an authentic fifteenth-century object and as an eighteenth-century imitation.

A part of the catalogue of Michelangelo Buonarroti’s early artworks has not been clarified, especially in connection with the patrons’ collections as well as the impact of the artist on the cultural milieu in Rome at the end of the fifteenth century. In particular, it is still necessary to undertake a reflection on the role that the cult of Antiquity had on the creation of the profane subject artworks by the young Michelangelo and the collected projects where his works were destined to be included. This paper analyzes the circulation of antiquarian knowledge cultivated by Michelangelo’s patrons together with the artist’s own connections to humanists. It aims to provide a more complete understanding of the humanistic values underpinning the collections of patrons like cardinal-camerlengo Raffaele Riario and the banker Jacopo Galli. It also situates some of Michelangelo’s early works within these contexts.

The article presents some recently rediscovered Roman monuments from colonia Sarmizegetusa, once
part of the archaeological collection of the Kuun-College
from Orăștie – Szászváros and the short history of one of
the most important school collections of Transylvania. The
article reflects also on the historical context of antiquarianism in the schools of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and
their importance in the preservation of the cultural heritage of the region

Vladislav Degtyarev. Gothic Revival and the Possibility of “Gothic Survival” (in Russian).

The notion of “Gothic survival” is still prevalent in literature on Gothic revival architecture in England. This concept implies the possibility of the unreflexive survival of Gothic architectural tradition in some distant provincial regions, where architects, searching connections with the past or folk traditions, could fi nd it. This notion, dating back to the literature
of the beginning of the 20th century, can be convincingly refuted by analyzing the meanings and purposes of different stages of Gothic revival. The article aims to demonstrate that the use of Gothic architectural forms in the second half of the 17th — beginning
of the 18th century was initiated by intellectuals and had no connection to the preservation of artisan traditions.
The courtiers of Elizabeth I, re-enacting mediaeval romances and Arthurian legends, conducted the earliest known Gothic revival. The relation between Elizabethan architecture and Gothic tradition has been
discussed many times. And in later decades — during the Stuart era, the Commonwealth and after the Restoration — Gothic colleges and churches were extensively built.
Basing on the sources available, it can be assumed that, though there was not any chronological break in Gothic architectural tradition, Gothic revival had been ideologically biased from its very beginning. We
can also say that the spread of classical architecture in England not only was unable to destroy the Gothic tradition, but also gave it new meanings and almost immediately made any appeal to Gothic forms an ideological statement.

Keywords: Gothic, architecture, ideology, Middle Ages, past, tradition, Gothic revival, Gothic survival.