Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/872

 852 EOMA. cat:ilo!;iie has come clown to us in various shapes. One of the simplest and most genuine seems to be that entitled Curiosum Urbis liomae Regionum XIII I. cumBrevlariis «M2,9,theMS.of which is in the Vatican. Some of the other MSS. of the Notilia seem to have been interpolated. Tiie spelling and grammar betray a late and barbarous age; but it is impossible that the work can have been composed at the time when the MS. was written. Besides these there are two catalogues of the so- called Regionarii, Pubmus Victok, and Sextus RuFus, which till a very recent period were regarded as genuine, and formed the chief basis of the works of the Italian topographers. IL is now, however, universally allowed that they are compilations of a very late date, and that even the names of the writers of them are forgeries. It would be too long to enter in this place into the reasons which have led to this conclusion ; and those readers who are desirous of more information will find a full and clear statement of the matter in a paper of Mr. Bun- bury's in the Classical Museum, (vol. iii. p. 373, seq.). The only other authorities on Roman topography that can be called original are a few notices by travellers and others in the middle ages. One of the principal of these is a collection of inscriptions, and of routes to the chief churches in Rome, dis- covered by Mabillon in the monastery of Einsiedlen, whence the author is commonly cited as the Ano- NYMUS EiNSiEDLENSis. The work appears to belong to the age of Charlemagne, and is at all events older than the Leonine city, or the middle of the 9 th century. It was published in the 4th vol. of Mabillon's Analecta; but since more correctly, according to the arrangement of Gustav Haenel, in the Archiv fur Philologie und Pddagotjik, vol. V. p. 11 5, seq. In the Routes the principal objects on the right and left are mentioned, though often lying at a considerable distance. Tiie treatise called the Mujabilia Romae, pre- fixed to the Chronicon Romualdi Salernitani in a MS. preserved in the Vatican, and belonging ap- parently to the 12th century, seems to have been the first attempt at a regular description of ancient Eome. It was compiled from statistical notices, narratives in the Acta Martyrum, and popular legends. It appears, with variations, in the Liber Censuum of Cencius, and in many subsequent ma- nuscripts, and was printed as early as the 16th century. It will be found in Montfaucon, Diarium Ital. p. 283, seq., and in Nibby's Effemeridi Let- ter arie, Rome, 1820, with notes. A work ascribed to Martinus Polonus, belonging probably to the latter part of the 13th century, seems to have been cliiefly founded on the Mirabilia. Accounts of some of the gates of Rome will be found in William OF Maljiesbury's work De Geslis Reguni An- glorum (book iv.). The Florentine Poggio, who flourished in the 15th century, paid great attention to Roman an- tiquities. His description of Rome, as it existed in his time, is a mere sketch, but elegant, scholar-like, and touching. It is contained in the first book of his work entitled De Varietate Fortunae Urhis Romae, and will be found in Sallengre, Nov. The- saur. Ant. Rom. vol. i. p. 501. A separate edition of his work was also pubUshed in Paris, 1723. His predecessor, Petrarch, has given a few par- ticulars respecting the state of the city in his time ; but he treats the subject in an uncritical manner. ROMA. The traveller Kyrtacus, called from his native town Anconitanus, who accompanied the emperor Sigismund, pas.sed a few days in Rome during the time that Poggio was also there, which he spent in collecting inscriptions, and noting dovpn some re- marks. His work, entitled Kyriaci Anconitani Itinerarium, was published at Florence in 1742. Such are the chief original sources of Roman topography. The literature of the subject is abund- antly copious, but our space will permit us to do little more than present the reader with a list of 'the principal works. The first regular treatise on tiie antiquities of Rome was that of JBiondo Flavio (Blon- dus Flavins) (1388 — 1463), who was at once a man of business and a man of letters. His work entitled Roma Imtau7-ata, a gigantic step in Roman topography, was published by Froben at Basle, 1513, fol. An Italian translation by Lucio Fauno, but imperfect, appeared at Venice in 1548. Towards the end of the 15th century, Julius Pomponius Laetus founded the Roman Academy. Laetus was an enthusiastic collector of inscriptions, but his fond- ness for them was such that he sometimes invented what he failed in discovering, and he is accused of having forged the inscription to the statue of Clau- dian found in the forum of Trajan. (Tiraboschi, Sloria della Lett. vol. ii. lib. iv.) His book. Be Romanae Urbis vetustate, is uncritical, and of small value. Janus Parrhasius had a little previously published the pseudo-Victor. To the same period belong the Be UrbeRoma Collectanea of the bishop Fabricius Varranus, a compilation chiefly borrowed from Biondo, and published, like the work of Laetus, in the collection of Mazocchi, Rome, 1515, 4to. Bernardo Ruccellai, a friend of Lorenzo de' Medici, commenced a description of Rome, by way of com- mentary on the so-called Victor. It was never completed, and the JIS., which is of considerable value, was first printed among the Florentine " Scriptores," in an Appendix to Muratori's collec- tion (vol. ii. p. 755). The next work that we need mention is the Anfi- quiiaies Urbis Romae of Andreas Fulvius, Rome, 1527, fol. Bresc. 1545, 8vo. This production is a great step in advance. Fulvius procured fri)m Raphael a sketch of the 1 4 Regions, according to the restoration of them by himself, but it does not seem to have been preserved. In 1534 the Mila- nese knight Bartholomaeus Marlianus published his Urbis Romae Topographia, a work in many points still un.surpassed. An augmented and much im- proved edition was published in 1544; but that of 1588 is a mere reprint of the first. It will also be found in the Thesaurus nf Graevius, vol. iii. Mar- liano was the first to illustrate his work with plans and drawings, though they are not of a very supe- rior kind. Lucio Fauno's Belle Antichita della Citta di Roma appeared at Venice in 1 548. It con- tains a few facts which had been overlooked by his predecessors. The celebrated henuit Onuphrius Pan- vinius of Verona, published at Venice in 1558 his CommeutariumReiimblicae Romanae Libri I II. The first book, entitled Antiquae Urbis Imago, which is the topographical part, is written with much learning and acuteness. It was intended merely as a preface to a complete description of Rome according to the Regions of Augustus, but the early death of Pan- vinius prevented the execution of this plan. His work is contained in the collection of Graevius, vol. iii. It was Panvinius who first published Sex- tus Rufus, and he also greatly augmented Publius I